PBESENTED  TO  THE  LIBRARY 


OF 


PRINCETON  THEOLOGICIL  SEMINKRY 


Pfofessof  }ienvy  van  Dyke,  D.D,,  LiIi.D. 


6S 
535 

/ft 


THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE 


LIST  OF  CONTRIBUTORS 

TO  THIS   VOLUME. 


The  Rev.  LYMAN  ABBOTT,  D.D. 

Prof.  RICHARD  G.  MOULTON,  Ph.D. 

The  Rev.  JOHN  P.  PETERS,  D.D. 

Prof.  A.  B.  BRUCE,  D.D. 

Prof.  L.  W.  BATTEN,  Ph.D. 

The  Rev.  JAMES  M.  WHITON,  Ph.D. 

Prof.  JOHN  F.  GENUNG,  Ph.D. 

The  Rev.  HENRY  VAN  DYKE,  D.D. 

Prof.  W.  J.  BEECHER,  D.D. 

The  Rev.  WILLIAM  E.  GRIFFIS,  D.D. 

The  Rev.  WILLIAM  H.  COBB,  D.D. 

Prof.  MAX  KELLNER,  D.D. 

Prof.  SAMUEL  I.  CURTISS,  D.D. 

Prof.  LEWIS  B.  PATON,  M.A. 

Prof.  MARVIN  R.  VINCENT,  D.D. 

Prof.  G.  FREDERICK  WRIGHT,  D.D. 

Prof.  RUSH  RHEES,  M.A. 

Prof.  GEO.  B.  STEVENS,  D.D. 

The  Rev.  SAMUEL  T.  LOWRIE,  D.D. 

Prof.  M.  S.  TERRY,  D.D. 

Prof.  ALBERT  S.  COOK,  Ph.D. 


THE 


Bible  as  Literature 


BY 

PROF.  RICHARD    G.  MOULTON,  Ph.D. 
THE    REV.   JOHN    P.  PETERS,  D.D. 
PROF.  A.  B.  BRUCE,  D.D. 

AND   OTHERS 


ith  an  ^TntroUuction 

BY 

THE   REV.  LYMAN   ABBOTT,  D.D. 


NEW  YORK:  46  East  14TH  Street 

THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  COMPANY 

BOSTON  :   100  Purchase  Street 


Copyright, 

1896, 

By  T.  Y.  CROWELL  &   CO. 


John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U,  S.  A, 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

Introduction ix 

By  the  Rev.  Lyman  Abbott,  D.D. 

CHAPTER   I. 
The  Bible  as  Literature 3 

By  Prof.  Richard  G-   Moulton,  Ph.D.,  of  the   University  of 
Chicago,  and  Cambridge  University,  England 

CHAPTER   n. 
Literary  Aspects  of  Genesis 15 

By  the  Rev.  John  P.  Peters,  Ph.D.,  Sc.D.,  D.D.,  of  St.  Michael's 
Church,  New  York. 

CHAPTER   in. 
The  Law  of  Moses 35 

By  Prof  A  B.  Bruce,  D.D.,  of  the  Free  Church  College,  Glasgow, 
Scotland. 

CHAPTER   IV. 

The  Age  of  the  Judges 47 

By  Prof.  L.  W.  Batten,  Ph.D.,  of  the  Episcopal  Divinity  School, 
Philadelphia. 

CHAPTER  V. 
Ruth  and  Esther 61 

By  the  Rev.  James  M.  Whiton,  Ph.D.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 


INTRODUCTION. 


^  I  ^HERE  are  two  ways  in  which  we  may  ap- 
proach  the  Bible :  the  theological  and  the 
literary.  We  may  assume  that  God  has  given  us 
a  revelation,  we  may  conclude  that  a  revelation 
from  a  God  of  truth  must  be  altogether  true, 
with  no  element  of  error  in  it;  and  then  taking  up 
the  Bible  we  may  make  it  our  duty  to  reconcile  all 
its  teachings  with  this  assumption.  Or  we  may 
take  it  up  without  any  prior  assumption,  we  may 
re-examine  it,  —  the  date,  authorship,  and  contents 
of  its  various  books,  —  to  ascertain  what  is  appar- 
ently the  truth  concerning  it;  and  from  this  exami- 
nation we  may  form  a  judgment  as  to  whether  it  is 
inspired  by  God  and  contains  a  revelation  from 
Him,  in  what  sense  and  to  what  degree  it  is  in- 
spired, and  how  far  and  on  what  subjects  it  is 
a  revelation.      The    first    I    call    the    theological 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

method,  the  second  the  hterary  method.  The 
former  method  has  been  a  not  uncommon  one; 
the  latter  is  both  the  more  scientific  and  the 
more  reverent.  It  is  not  for  us  to  determine  what 
kind  of  a  revelation  a  God  of  truth  must  be  sup- 
posed to  have  given  us  and  then  deduce  the 
character  of  the  Bible  from  that  determination. 
It  is  for  us  to  see  what  kind  of  a  revelation  He  has 
given  us,  and  to  accept  that  gift  humbly,  rever- 
ently, thankfully. 

When  in  this  spirit  we  take  up  the  Bible  to  ex- 
amine it,  we  discover  at  once  that  it  is  not  a  book 
but  a  library;  that  it  is  composed  of  sixty-six 
different  books  bound  up  together ;  that  they  were 
apparently  written  by  forty  or  more  different 
authors ;  that  they  were  written  at  different  epochs, 
for  different  readers,  under  widely  different  circum- 
stances ;  and  that  more  than  twice  as  many  years 
elapsed  between  the  first  and  the  last  writing  as 
elapsed  between  the  writing  of  Chaucer's  poems 
and  the  writing  of  Tennyson's.^ 

1  I  assume,  as  it  is  quite  safe  to  do,  that  the  substance  of  the 
Book  of  the  Covenant,  including  the  Ten  Commandments  (Exodus 
XX.  i-xxiv.  7),  dates  from  the  days  of  Moses,  and  that  the  Gospel 
of  John  was  written  at  the  close  of  the  first  century  of  the  Chris- 
tian Era. 


INTRODUCTION.  Xl 

We  further  discover  that  it  contains  many  differ- 
ent types  of  Hterature.  Genesis  is  a  collection  of 
pre-historic  narratives;  Exodus,  Leviticus,  Num- 
bers, and  Deuteronomy  a  collection  of  ancient 
laws,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  embedded  in  history ; 
Kings  and  Chronicles  a  series  of  historical  records; 
Ruth  an  idyl  of  the  common  people;  Esther  an 
historical  romance  of  court  life ;  Job  an  '*  epic  of 
the  inner  life ;  "  ^  the  Psalms  a  Hebrew  Hymnal 
for  Church  and  home  worship ;  Proverbs  a  col- 
lection of  wise  sayings  of  many  authors ;  the  Song 
of  Songs  a  drama  of  love  strong  under  temptation ; 
Ecclesiastes  a  poem,  illustrating  the  ''  two  voices  " 
which  are  ever  appearing  in  conflicting  inter- 
pretations of  human  Hfe,  —  the  interpretation  of 
cynicism,  and  that  of  faith  and  hope ;  and  finally 
the  books  of  the  prophets,  —  volumes  of  sermons, 
chiefly  on  national  affairs,  by  the  great  preach- 
ers of  this  peculiar  people.  And  we  also  dis- 
cover that  in  all  these  various  ages  and  writers 
and  forms  of  literature  there  is  a  common  spirit 
and  to  a  certain  extent  a  common  message.  These 
books  are  bound  together  not  merely  by  binders' 
thread,  but  by  an   intellectual   and  spiritual  unity, 

1  So  admirably  entitled  by  Professor  Genung. 


xii  INTRODUCTION. 

which  is  the  more  remarkable  since  it  appears  in 
authors  who  write  without  concurrence  of  conscious 
design  and  without  similarity  in  training,  circum- 
stance,   or  temperament.      Legend,    law,    history, 
poetry,  fiction,  philosophy,  preaching,  —  a  common 
spirit  pervades  them  all,  a  common  purpose  ani- 
mates them  all.     We  also  discover  that  the  spirit 
is  not   equally  luminous,  nor  the  purpose  equally 
strong,  nor  the  message  equally  clear  in  all ;  that 
between  the  doctrine  of  Joshua,  **  The  Lord  is  a 
jealous    God ;     He   will    not   forgive    your    trans- 
gressions nor  your  sins,"  and  that  of  the  Psalter, 
**  He  forgiveth  all  thine  iniquities,  He  healeth  all 
thy  diseases ;   He  redeemeth  thy  life  from  destruc- 
tion," there  is  a  very  apparent  contradiction.     In 
brief,  we  discover  that  there  is  in  this  literature,  as 
in  all  literature,  a  growth  in  clearness  of  appre- 
hension and  of  expression ;  that  the  light  of  this 
Hebrew  anthology  is  one  which  *'  shineth  more  and 
more  unto  the  perfect  day." 

One  who  has  been  accustomed  to  consider  the 
Bible  from  the  theological  point  of  view  finds  two 
serious  difficulties  in  the  literary  point  of  view.  It 
seems  to  him  at  first  irreverent,  and  indeed  incon- 
sistent with  any  theory  of  inspiration,  to  suppose 


INTRODUCTION.  XUl 

that  the  Bible  contains  legends  and  traditions, 
drama  and  fiction,  in  short,  belles  lettreSy  as  well  as 
history  and  law ;  and  if  he  overcomes  this  difficulty, 
he  halts  at  a  second :  How  is  he  to  know  what  is 
wholly  true  and  what  is  only  partially  true,  what  is 
the  word  of  God  and  what  the  human  husk  which 
contains  it? 

The  first  difficulty  is  a  product  of  Puritan  in- 
tellectual habits.  The  Puritan  was  essentially 
prosaic.  He  looked  with  suspicion  on  the  great 
poet  who  belonged  to  his  own  school,  —  Milton,  — 
and  he  condemned  unsparingly  the  still  greater  poet 
who  did  not,  —  Shakespeare.  He  disapproved  of 
fiction,  for  he  confounded  fact  and  truth,  and 
thought  nothing  could  be  true  which  was  not  fact. 
He  therefore  reprobated  all  novels,  tales,  and 
dramas  as  essentially  dangerous  if  not  essentially 
vicious ;  and  of  course  he  could  not  imagine  that 
the  Bible  contained  such  elements  of  peril  to  the 
soul.  We  no  longer  entertain  his  opinion  as  to 
secular  Hterature;  we  honor  poetry,  fiction,  and 
the  drama :  and  therefore  we  have  not  his  reason 
for  imagining  that  they  are  excluded  from  the 
Bible.  The  sacred  writers  did  not  themselves 
confine  their  idea  of  divine  inspiration  to  special 


xiv  INTRODUCTION. 

forms  of  life.  The  artificer  of  the  Temple  was  re- 
garded as  inspired  no  less  than  the  giver  of  the 
law;  ^  the  sacred  song  no  less  than  the  sermon.^ 
That  conception  of  inspiration  which  supposes  that 
it  is  confined  to  historians,  biographers,  and  law- 
givers, that  conception  of  revelation  which  sup- 
poses that  it  is  made  only  through  the  record  of 
facts,  is  certainly  narrower  than  that  which  sup- 
poses that  God  inspires  the  imagination  as  well  as 
the  reason,  the  poet  and  the  romance-writer  as  well 
as  the  historian  and  the  preacher,  that,  as  He  has 
made  all  human  faculties,  so  He  uses  all  to  make 
Himself  known  to  His  children.  He  who  has  read 
the  charming  letters  of  Phillips  Brooks  to  children 
will  recognize  that  a  man  may  reveal  himself  as 
truly  by  the  very  frolics  of  imagination  as  by 
serious  counsel.  And  what  is  true  of  man  is 
equally  true  of  God.  Some  of  Christ's  most  elo- 
quent instructions  were  afforded  through  fiction, — 
the  parables;  why  should  we  suppose  that  God 
disdained  to  use  in  the  Old  Testament  what  Christ 
used  freely  in  the  New  Testament? 

The  other   difficulty  equally   disappears   if  we 
look  in  the  Bible  to  see  what  it  says  about  itself.     It 

^  Exod.  XXXV.  30-35.  ^  Luke  i.  67. 


INTR  OD  UC  TION.  XV 

declares  of  itself  that  it  is  a  hidden  treasure.  We 
must  search  for  it,  as  men  search  for  a  hidden 
treasure,  and  must  ourselves  separate  the  gold 
from  the  alloy.  It  is  not  mined,  coined,  minted, 
and  delivered  to  us  with  the  King's  stamp  on  it. 
The  mining,  coining,  and  assaying  of  it  are  left  for 
us  to  do.  And  this  because  we  can  come  to  a 
real  knowledge  of  the  truth  only  by  this  very 
process.  A  revelation  of  truth  which  exempted 
us  from  toil  and  research,  and  released  us  from 
intellectual  and  moral  responsibility,  would  be  no 
revelation  at  all.  It  is  by  the  exercise  of  moral  dis- 
crimination that  we  gain  the  power  to  discriminate. 
There  are  three  very  simple  principles  which  the 
student  of  the  Bible  should  ever  bear  in  mind  in 
this  process  of  Bible  study;  they  will  save  him 
from  falling  into  an  error  which  has  not  been  un- 
common and  which  has  proved  a  cause  of  great 
and  needless  perplexity.  There  is  no  room  here 
either  to  elaborate  or  to  demonstrate  these  prin- 
ciples: I  can  only  state  and  briefly  apply  them. 
The  first  is  that  the  Bible  does  not  contain  and 
does  not  purport  to  contain  a  revelation  of  all 
truth ;  it  affords  simply  a  revelation  or  unveiling  of 
God.     The  second  is  that  this  revelation  or  unveil- 


xvi  INTRO  D  UC  TJON. 

ing  of  God  reaches  its  consummation  in  the  Hfe, 
teaching,  and  above  all  in  the  character  of  Jesus 
Christ,  who  is  God  manifest  in  the  flesh.  The 
third  is  that  this  revelation  of  God  is  not  made 
exclusively  in  the  Bible :  it  is  made  also  in  Nature, 
in  Providence,  and  in  our  own  spiritual  conscious- 
ness. It  is  for  us  so  to  interpret  the  Bible  that 
these  three  shall  agree.  Anything  in  the  Bible 
which  is  inconsistent  with  the  character  and  teach- 
ings of  Christ  may  be  safely  regarded  as  in  so  far 
human,  fallible,  and  imperfect.  If,  for  example, 
Christ  tells  us  to  love  our  enemies,  and  pray  for 
them  who  despitefully  use  us,  and  we  find  in  the 
Old  Testament  a  Psalm  which  pronounces  a  bless- 
ing on  him  "  that  taketh  and  dasheth  thy  little  ones 
against  the  stones,"  we  may  be  perfectly  sure  that 
the  latter  is  not  a  revelation  of  the  divine  spirit.  It 
is  rather  a  revelation  of  that  spirit  from  which 
Christ  has  come  to  deliver  us.  Anything  in  the 
Bible  which  clearly  contradicts  the  unquestionable 
facts  of  Nature  we  may  be  equally  sure  is  an  im- 
perfect interpretation  of  the  divine  method  in 
Nature.  Our  system  of  astronomy  is  to  be  derived 
from  the  stars,  not  from  the  Bible,  and  if  they  con- 
flict we  are  to  correct  the  Bible  by  the  stars,  not 


INTRODUCTION,  xvii 

the  stars  by  the  Bible.  Finally,  God  does  not 
speak  contradictory  things,  one  to  each  individual 
through  his  conscience,  the  other  to  humanity 
through  an  ancient  record.  When  these  seem  to 
conflict  we  must  follow  the  voice  which  is  within 
rather  than  the  voice  which  is  without.  We  must 
so  interpret  what  ancient  men  tell  us  they  under- 
stood God's  voice  to  be  as  not  to  make  it  contradict 
what  God's  voice  plainly  and  clearly  says  to  us. 
We  may  and  often  ought  to  hold  our  own  moral 
judgments  in  abeyance,  until  we  have  given  the 
question  which  perplexes  us  further  study  and 
consideration.  But  what,  after  the  fullest  and 
most  conscientious  consideration  appears  to  us  to 
be  our  duty,  must  be  taken  by  us  as  a  divine 
direction,  and  whatever  in  the  words  of  others 
contradicts  this  inward  monitor,  we  must  either 
believe  we  do  not  understand  or  we  must  believe 
to  be  erroneous.  In  a  word,  we  must  either  think 
we  do  not  understand  the  interpreter  or  else  that 
he  did  not  understand  God. 

With  these  reflections  on  the  spirit  with  which 
the  Bible  is  to  be  studied  and  used,  and  with  the 
profound  conviction  that  the  more  free  our  study 
the  more    sacred   the   book  will   become  to   us,  I 


xviii  INTRODUCTION. 

heartily  commend  to  the  reader  this  little  volume 

as  a  valuable  aid  to  the  better  understanding  of 

the  Bible.     The  more  thoroughly  and    freely  the 

human  life  and  character  of  the  sacred  writers  and 

their  immediate  auditors  is  studied,  the  clearer  to 

the  student  will  be  the  revelation  of  God  afforded 

by  the  writings,  —  a  revelation  unparalleled  for  its 

strength  and   beauty  by  any  other  of  the  world 

literatures. 

LYMAN   ABBOTT. 


THE    BIBLE    AS    LITERATURE. 


I. 

THE   BIBLE   AS   LITERATURE.i 
By  prof.  RICHARD  G.  MOULTON,  Ph.D. 

Of  the  University  of  Chicago,  and  Cambridge  University,  England. 

/^~\NE  of  our  old  dramas  bears  the  somewhat 
^-^  remarkable  title,  "  A  Woman  Killed  with 
Kindness."  It  would  seem  as  if  a  similarly  con- 
structed title  might  well  describe  the  Bible  in  the 
hands  of  its  English  readers ;  it  is  a  •'  Literature 
Smothered  by  Reverence."  Of  course,  as  a  source 
of  spiritual  life  the  sacred  Word  has  its  full  vitality 
and  vitalizing  force.  But  the  Bible  is  something 
besides  this  ;  the  very  name  ''  Bible  "  may  be  trans- 
lated "  Literature,"  and,  considered  as  literature, 
it  must  be  confessed  that  the  Bible  is  exercisiner 

o 

little  influence  upon  those  to  whom  it  is  familiar. 
Moreover,  it  would  seem  that  it  has  been  reduced 
to  this  state  of  inanition  through  an  extreme  rev- 
erence, which,   being  divorced   from    intelligence, 

1  Professor  Moulton's  work,  "  The  Literary  Study  of  the 
Bible  "  (D.  C.  Heath  &  Co.)  is  designed  as  a  text-book  to  the 
general  subject 


4  THE  BIBLE   AS  LITERATURE. 

has  proved  mischievous.  It  has  been  felt  that,  in 
the  case  of  so  transcendent  a  message,  the  very 
sentences  containing  it  were  sacred.  But,  in  thus 
doing  homage  to  the  separate  sentences,  readers 
have  lost  that  linking  between  sentences  and  sen- 
tences which  gave  to  them  all  their  real  force; 
to  the  devout  reader  the  Bible  has  become  a 
store-house  of  isolated  texts,  of  good  words.  He 
scarcely  realizes  that  it  exhibits  the  varieties  of 
literary  form  familiar  to  him  elsewhere,  —  essays, 
epigrams,  sonnets,  stories,  sermons,  songs,  philo- 
sophical observations  and  treatises,  histories  and 
legal  documents.  Even  dramas  are  to  be  found 
in  the  Bible,  and  also  love-songs ;  nay,  so  far 
does  dumb  show  enter  into  the  ministry  of  Eze- 
kiel  that  some  of  his  compositions  might  fairly 
be  described  as  tableaux-vivants.  The  distinction 
between  things  sacred  and  things  secular,  which 
exercises  so  questionable  an  influence  upon  our 
times,  seems  unknown  to  the  world  of  the  Old 
Testament.  Its  literature  embraces  national  an- 
thems of  Israel  in  various  stages  of  its  history, 
war  ballads  with  rough  refrains,  hymns  of  defeat 
and  victory,  or  for  triumphant  entrance  into  a 
conquered  capital;  pilgrim  songs,  and  the  chants 
with  which  the  family  parties   beguiled   the  jour- 


THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 


5 


neys  to  the  great  feasts ;  fanciful  acrostics  to  clothe 
sacred  meditations  or  composed  in  compliment  to 
a  perfect  wife;  even  the  games  of  riddles  which 
belong  to  such  social  meetings  as  Samson's  wed- 
ding. With  the  single  exception  of  humorous 
literature,  for  which  the  Hebrew  temperament  has 
Httle  fitness,  the  Bible  presents  as  varied  an  intel- 
lectual food  as  can  be  found  in  any  national 
literature. 

But  the  anxious  inquiry  will  be  made  by  some : 
Will  not  this  literary  treatment  of  Holy  Writ  inter- 
fere with  its  higher  religious  and  theological  uses  ? 
The  question  ought  to  answer  itself:  if  the  Divine 
Revelation,  which  might  have  been  made  in  so 
many  different  ways,  has  in  fact  taken  the  form 
of  literature,  this  must  be  warrant  sufficient  for 
making  such  literary  form  a  matter  of  study.  But 
this  is  an  understatement  of  the  case ;  not  only  is 
the  literary  study  of  the  Bible  permissible,  but  it 
is  a  necessary  adjunct  to  the  proper  spiritual  inter- 
pretation. No  doubt  edification  of  a  kind  may  be 
drawn  from  an  isolated  verse  or  a  brief  succession 
of  sentences ;  but  it  is  only  when  each  literary 
section  has  been  understood  as  a  whole  in  its  plain 
or  natural  meaning  that  it  is  safe  to  go  forsvard  to 
the  deeper  spiritual  signification.     The  neglect  of 


6  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

this  principle  is  responsible  for  many  of  the  fanci- 
ful and  even  grotesque  interpretations  of  the  old 
commentators.  To  take  an  example,  Solomon's 
Song  contains  the  following  passage :  — 

By  night,  on  my  bed, 

I  sought  him  whom  my  soul  loveth ; 

I  sought  him,  but  I  found  him  not. 

A  commentator  like  Quarles  was  ready  from  this 
single  verse  to  plunge  into  mystic  interpretation. 
His  book  of  emblems  represents  a  female  figure, 
conventionally  signifying  the  human  soul,  standing 
with  a  flat  candlestick  in  her  hand  by  a  bedside ; 
she  is  turning  down  the  bed-clothes,  and  appears 
surprised  to  find  nothing  inside  them ;  while  on  the 
floor,  hidden  from  her  but  visible  to  the  reader,  is 
the  figure  of  the  Saviour,  in  the  attitude  of  one 
who  has  tumbled  out  of  bed.  No  irreverence,  of 
course,  is  intended ;  but  such  ludicrous  literalism 
would  be  impossible  to  any  one  reading  the  poem 
as  a  piece  of  literature,  who  must  see  that  the 
words  quoted  are  the  beginning  of  an  exquisite 
dream  of  the  heroine  losing  and  again  finding  her 
lover.  Nor  when  the  dream  has  been  fully  caught 
is  there  any  loss  of  mystic  symbolism.  All  sections 
of  the  poem  are  a  celebration  of  conjugal  love. 
But  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  alike  apply  the 


THE  BIBLE   AS  LITERATURE.  y 

imagery  of  Bride  and  Bridegroom  to  the  relations 
between  the  soul  and  Christ,  or  the  Church  and  its 
Head,  and  thus  all  the  thoughts  and  emotions  of 
the  poem  can  have  their  spiritual  applications. 
First  in  order  of  time  is  that  which  is  natural  — 
the  plain  literary  interpretation  —  and  afterwards 
that  which  is  spiritual. 

The  point  to  be  pressed  upon  the  reading  world 
at  the  present  time  is  that  the  Bible  is,  above 
all  things,  an  interesting  hterature.  No  class  of 
readers  can  afford  to  neglect  it,  for  —  with  the 
single  exception  noted  above  —  every  variety  of 
literary  interest  is  represented  in  the  books  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  And,  in  marvellous 
manner,  all  these  kinds  of  literary  beauty  are 
concentrated  in  a  single  work,  —  the  Book  of  Job. 
This  has  an  epic  story  for  its  basis ;  if  it  has  less 
of  lyric  than  of  any  other  form,  yet  this  lyric 
element  —  the  Curse  —  is  among  the  most  famous 
passages  in  all  poetry.  The  bulk  of  the  book  is  a 
drama,  in  which  there  are  characters  finely  dis- 
criminated and  meeting  in  sharp  contrast,  an  open- 
air  scene  and  chorus  of  spectators,  and  a  plot 
which  has  its  denouement  in  a  thunderstorm  —  the 
overlooking  of  which  scenic  touch  has  led  to  mis- 
understanding of  the  speeches  attributed  to  God. 


8  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

The  matter  of  the  poem  embraces  ethical  ques- 
tions, and  even  questions  of  social  science,  which 
are  still  the  themes  of  our  philosophers;  while 
so  artistically  are  the  various  elements  blended 
that  each  stage  of  the  drama  —  from  prologue  to 
epilogue  —  has  the  function  of  stating  or  shadow- 
ing a  different  solution  of  the  world's  great  mystery 
of  pain.  Such  a  blending  of  all  kinds  of  interest 
in  a  single  work  cannot  be  paralleled  in  any  other 
of  the  world's  masterpieces. 

Among  the  separate  branches  of  literature  the 
lyric  poetry  of  the  Bible  ranges  from  the  early 
Songs  of  Deborah,  or  of  Israel  by  the  Red  Sea, 
danced  by  answering  choruses  of  men  and  women, 
to  such  ideal  and  deeply  spiritual  meditations  as 
the  Hundred  and  Thirty-ninth  Psalm.  Critics  by 
no  means  partial  to  the  religious  side  of  Scripture 
have  recognized  that  in  lyric  poetry  the  Hebrew 
leads  the  literature  of  the  world.  Of  epic  poetry, 
on  the  contrary,  it  has  been  the  custom  to  say 
that  the  Bible  has  no  example.  But  the  truth  is 
rather  that  the  definition  of  epic  poetry  needs 
enlarging  to  take  in  the  stories  of  Scripture ;  the 
ignoring  of  these  has  led  to  the  common  mistake 
that  *'  epic  "  is  equivalent  to  ''  fiction."  Except 
in   this  one  matter  of  being  part  of  the  national 


THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE.  9 

history,  these  BibHcal  stories  produce  upon  our 
minds  just  the  effect  of  epic  poems.  Such  a  story 
is  that  of  Joseph,  with  its  ironic  situations  and 
poetic  justice ;  or  that  of  David  and  Saul,  brimful 
of  adventure ;  or  the  mixed  verse  and  prose  that 
make  up  the  story  of  Balaam ;  or  the  exquisite 
idyl  that  unites  in  so  sweet  a  bond  the  melancholy 
beauty  of  Naomi  and  the  shy  grace  of  Ruth ;  or 
the  crown  of  them  all,  the  Book  of  Esther,  which 
is  saved  from  being  an  exciting  novel  with  a 
double  plot  only  by  the  accident  of  its  being 
historically  true.  These  stories  are  epic  gems  in 
a  setting  of  sober  history.  And  this  setting  will 
appeal  to  a  different  literary  taste,  presenting 
history  in  all  its  forms,  from  the  archaeology 
of  Genesis,  or  the  constitutional  history  of  the 
following  books,  to  the  ecclesiastical  digests  of 
Chronicles. 

It  is  impossible  here  to  name  all  the  depart- 
ments of  Biblical  literature.  A  nation's  whole 
philosophy  —  in  that  picturesque  dress  which  has 
given  to  Hebrew  philosophy  its  name  of  **  Wis- 
dom "  —  may  be  read  in  the  books  of  Proverbs 
and  Ecclesiastes,  and  the  Apocryphal  books  of 
Ecclesiasticus  and  Wisdom  of  Solomon ;  read  in 
their  proper  order,  they  display  the  whole  devel- 


lO  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

opment  of  that  philosophy,  from  the  brief,  dis- 
jointed observations  that  make  up  Proverbs,  to 
the  first  troubled  attempt  to  read  the  meaning  of 
life  in  Ecclesiastes,  and  the  recovered  serenity 
when,  in  the  Book  of  Wisdom,  a  wider  survey  of 
life  harmonizes  analysis  and  faith.  The  literature 
of  oratory  is  splendidly  represented  in  Deuteron- 
omy; and  no  collection  of  speeches  in  secular 
literature  has  the  interest  which  is  given  to  the 
orations  of  Moses  by  the  dramatic  setting  of  the 
book,  which  presents  the  pathetic  situation  of 
Moses  at  Pisgah,  until  pathos  becomes  triumph 
and  rhetoric  gives  place  to  song.  Philos'ophy  and 
oratory  belong  to  all  literatures;  but  the  Bible 
has  all  to  itself  the  department  of  prophecy.  This 
gathers  into  one  distinct  literary  form  sermons 
and  political  speeches ;  burdens  on  hostile  peoples 
that  suggest  the  satires  of  secular  literature ;  the 
mystic  poetry  of  visions ;  dramatic  dialogues  like 
Micah's  controversy  before  the  mountains,  or  Jere- 
miah's intercession  in  a  season  of  drought;  while 
all  ordinary  literary  forms  are  transcended  when 
Joel  and  Isaiah  present  advancing  judgment  in  a 
spiritual  drama  that  has  all  space  for  its  stage  and 
all  time  for  the  period  of  its  action. 

In  intrinsic  worth,  then,  the  Old  Testament  is 


THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE.  II 

second  to  none  of  the  world's  great  literatures. 
Moreover,  it  has,  in  common  with  the  literature  of 
Greece  and  Rome,  been  the  main  factor  in  the 
development  of  our  modern  prose  and  poetry. 
For  the  English-speaking  people,  no  liberal  educa- 
tion will  be  complete  in  which  classical  and  Bibli- 
cal literatures  do  not  stand  side  by  side. 


LITERARY   ASPECTS   OF  GENESIS. 


II. 


LITERARY  ASPECTS  OF  GENESIS. 

By  the  Rev.  JOHN  P.  PETERS,  Ph.D.,  Sc.  D.,  D.D. 

Of  St.  MichaeVs  Church,  New  York. 

THE  use  of  the  Bible  as  a  dictionary  of  re- 
ligion has  somewhat  obscured  its  literary 
character.  It  is  most  admirably  arranged  for  ref- 
erence to  texts  by  means  of  chapters  and  verses 
on  the  principle  of  a  dictionary,  but  this  arrange- 
ment, so  well  adapted  to  that  use,  renders  it  diffi- 
cult reading,  and  often  hides  from  view  the  true 
connection  of  its  parts.  We  read  it  by  chapters, 
stopping  in  the  middle  of  a  narrative,  losing  much 
of  the  literary  beauty,  failing  oftentimes  to  appre- 
hend the  general  structure,  and  the  relation  of 
parts  to  one  another  as  conceived  by  the  author. 

To  comprehend  the  book  of  Genesis  as  its  au- 
thor designed  it  we  must  throw  aside  these  late 
divisions  into  chapters  and  verses,  so  convenient 
for  purposes  of  reference,  and  search  for  the  au- 
thor's own  divisions.     When  we  do  this  we  shall 


1 6  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

find  that  the  author  of  Genesis  arranged  that  book 
according  to  a  very  definite  and  simple  scheme, 
prefixing  to  each  section  what  we  may  call  a 
chapter  heading,  stating  the  contents  of  that  par- 
ticular chapter  or  section.  These  chapter  head- 
ings are  unmistakable  when  once  attention  has 
been  called  to  them.  The  first  is  found  at  Chap, 
ii.  4:  "These  are  the  generations  of  the  heavens 
and  of  the  earth  when  they  were  created,  in  the  day 
that  the  Lord  God  made  the  earth  and  the  heavens." 
The  next  chapter,  the  third,  for  there  is  an  intro- 
ductory chapter,  i.  i-ii.  3,  which  has  no  heading, 
because  a  first  page  or  chapter  or  section  is  always 
clear  as  such  to  both  eye  and  ear  without  anything 
further,  has  a  similar  heading,  v.  i :  "  This  is  the 
book  of  the  generations  of  Adam."  The  fourth 
chapter,  vi.  9-ix.  29,  is  "  The  generations  of 
Noah ;  "  the  fifth,  x.  i-xi.  9,  ''  The  generations  of 
the  sons  of  Noah;  "  the  sixth,  xi.  lo-xi.  26,  "  The 
generations  of  Shem ;  "  the  seventh,  xi.  27-32, 
**  The  generations  of  Terah." 

Here  the  author  starts  afresh.  He  has  carried 
the  story  down  from  the  creation  to  Abraham,  the 
great  father  of  the  Hebrews.  His  manner  now 
changes.  He  has  more  to  narrate.  There  is  less 
genealogy  proportionally,  and   more  detail,  more 


LITERARY  ASPECTS   OF  GENESIS.  1 7 

stories.  Arranging  the  work  in  modern  fashion, 
we  might  call  the  first  eleven  chapters  the  first 
book  of  Genesis.  With  the  twelfth  chapter  begins 
the  second  book.  Here,  as  in  the  first  book,  the  first 
chapter  or  section  has  no  heading,  and  for  the  same 
reason,  that  it  requires  none.  It  is  only  the  suc- 
ceeding chapters  which  require  headings,  be- 
cause without  them  the  reader  might  not  observe 
that  a  new  chapter  had  begun.  The  Hebrews  did 
not  use,  it  must  be  remembered,  our  modern  de- 
vices of  numbering,  spacing,  and  the  like,  any  more 
than  they  used  brackets,  quotation  marks,  italics, 
capitals,  punctuation,  and  all  the  other  devices 
which  have  been  devised  in  modern  times  for  pur- 
poses of  convenience  and  precision. 

The  first  chapter  of  the  second  book  of  Genesis, 
the  eighth  of  the  entire  book,  xii.  i-xxv.  11,  is  the 
story  of  Abraham.  At  the  beginning  of  the  ninth 
chapter,  xxv.  12-18,  there  is  a  chapter  heading  of 
the  same  character  as  those  in  the  first  book : 
'*  These  are  the  generations  of  Ishmael."  The  tenth 
chapter,  xxv.  19-xxxv.  29,  is  *'  The  generations  of 
Isaac;"  the  eleventh  chapter,  xxxvi.  i-xxxvii.  i, 
is  *'  The  generations  of  Esau  ;  "  the  twelfth  chapter, 
xxxvii.  2  to  the  close  of  the  book,  is  ''  The  gen- 
erations of  Jacob." 


1 8  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

We  have,  then,  according  to  the  scheme  of  the 
author,  two  books,  the  first  with  seven  chapters,  a 
mystical  number,  starting  with  the  creation  in  seven 
days,  and  bringing  us  down  to  the  entrance  into 
Canaan  of  Abraham,  the  great  father  of  the  He- 
brews ;  while  the  two  books  together,  composed  of 
twelve  chapters,  also  a  mystical  number,  bring  us 
down  to  the  twelve  patriarchs,  ancestors  of  the 
twelve  tribes  of  Israel,  and  the  beginning  of  the 
sojourn  of  the  Hebrews  in  Egypt.  The  scheme 
is  mystical,  and  yet  so  plain  that  were  the  book 
now  arranged  in  its  chapters  as  the  author  planned 
them,  with  their  headings,  the  most  careless  reader 
must  at  once  observe  the  purpose  and  character  of 
the  work. 

Genesis  is  the  first  volume  in  a  series  treating  of 
the  early  history  of  Israel.  According  to  the  con- 
ception of  the  author,  Israel  began  with  the  cre- 
ation of  the  universe,  because  God  had  Israel  in 
mind  when  He  began  to  create,  and  a  history  of 
the  beginnings  of  Israel  must  commence  with  the 
history  of  the  beginnings  of  the  universe.  Our 
volume  opens,  therefore,  with  the  creation  of  the 
universe :  ''  In  the  beginning  God  created  the 
heavens  and  the  earth."  The  second  chapter  over- 
laps the  first  somewhat.     It  is  concerned  with  the 


LITERARY  ASPECTS  OF  GENESIS.  19 

preparation  of  the  earth  for  the  dwelling-place  of 
man,  and  the  formation  of  a  garden  of  delight  in 
the  region  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates.  There 
man,  Adam,  is  placed,  and  everything  in  the  garden 
is  given  to  him  to  use,  excepting  one  tree,  the  fruit 
of  which  he  may  not  eat.  Then  out  of  his  very 
flesh  and  bones  is  formed  for  him  a  helpmeet, 
woman.  But  with  sex  sin  comes  into  the  world ; 
they  eat  of  the  forbidden  fruit;  man  and  woman 
are  driven  out  of  Eden,  the  garden,  and  there 
begins  for  the  human  race  the  hard  life  of  toil  and 
child-bearing,  and  strife  and  envy  and  murder.  Of 
the  children  of  this  first  pair  one  is  a  herdsman, 
another  tills  the  ground.  God  accepts  the  offering 
of  the  herdsman  and  not  that  of  the  husbandman, 
and  in  envy,  Cain,  the  husbandman,  slays  Abel, 
the  herdsman.  Little  by  little  men  learn  to  build 
cities,  to  work  in  copper  and  iron,  to  make  musical 
instruments,  and  the  like.  The  third  chapter  gives 
us  genealogical  lists  of  the  descendants  of  Adam, 
as  far  as  Noah.  Then  it  tells  us  of  the  loves  of 
gods  and  men,  the  resulting  race  of  giants,  and  the 
wickedness  of  the  earth.  Only  Noah  was  good. 
The  next  chapter,  the  fourth,  tells  of  the  purifica- 
tion of  the  earth  by  a  great  flood,  from  which  only 
Noah  and  his  family  were  saved,  he  having  at  the 


20  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

command  of  God  built  a  great  box,  or  ark,  in  which 
he  floated  safely  over  the  waters.  Toward  the 
close  of  the  chapter  we  hear  of  the  cultivation  of 
the  vine  and  the  discovery  of  wine  by  Noah.  The 
next  chapter  records  the  repeopling  of  the  earth 
by  the  three  sons  of  Noah.  All  nations  known  to 
the  author  are  classified  as  descended  from  one  of 
these  three  sons,  and  their  differences  in  language 
are  accounted  for  by  the  story  of  the  tower  of 
Babel.  The  sixth  and  seventh  chapters  are  brief 
and  dry,  consisting  of  genealogies  tracing  the  de- 
scent of  Terah  from  Shem  and  of  Abraham  from 
Terah,  showing  the  close  racial  affinities  of  He- 
brews and  Aramseans.  So  the  author  briefly  sums 
up  the  history  of  the  universe  and  of  mankind  be- 
fore Abraham,  and  prepares  the  way  for  the  story 
of  the  ancestors  of  the  Hebrews. 

The  second  part  of  the  book  deals  at  far  greater 
length  with  the  story  of  the  immediate  ancestors 
of  Israel.  The  locality  is  the  land  of  Canaan. 
Hither  Abram,  or  Abraham,  has  come  by  the  com- 
mand of  God,  and  here  he  and  Lot,  his  nephew, 
wander  back  and  forth  with  their  flocks  and  herds. 
Abraham  has  a  very  beautiful  wife,  Sarai,  or  Sarah, 
so  beautiful  that  when,  driven  by  famine,  they  once 
wander  to  Egypt,  the  Pharaoh  becomes  enamored 


LITERARY  ASPECTS  OF  GENESIS.  21 

of  her.  But  although  God  has  promised  that 
Abraham  shall  become  a  great  nation,  Sarah  re- 
mains barren.  Lot  and  Abraham  separate,  and 
Lot  becomes  the  father  of  Ammon  and  Moab,  to 
the  east  of  the  Jordan.  Abraham  himself  by  an 
Egyptian  handmaid,  Hagar,  as  also  by  another 
wife,  Keturah,  becomes  the  father  of  various  no- 
madic Arabic  and  Aramaean  tribes  inhabiting  the 
country  south  and  east  of  Canaan ;  but  from  none 
of  these  is  Israel  descended.  Finally,  when  it 
seems  impossible  that  God's  promise  shall  be  ful- 
filled, when  Sarah  is  old  and  withered,  by  the 
announcement  of  an  angel,  a  son,  Isaac,  is  born 
to  them;  and  just  as  you  think  that  Abraham's 
trials  are  ended  and  his  faith  rewarded,  God  calls 
upon  him  to  sacrifice  this  long  hoped  for  and  only 
son.  The  boy  is  bound  upon  the  altar,  and  the 
father's  hand  is  raised  to  slay  him,  when  God  inter- 
feres to  save  him,  and  gives  Abraham  a  ram  to 
sacrifice  in  his  stead.  This  father  of  the  future 
Israel  may  not  marry  a  wife  from  the  nations  of 
Canaan,  for  the  blood  of  Israel  must  be  kept  pure ; 
so  when  Abraham  is  ''  old,  and  well  stricken  in 
years "  he  sends  Eliezer  his  servant  to  Mesopo- 
tamia to  choose  for  Isaac  a  wife  from  his,  Abra- 
ham's, people.     The  wooing  of  Rebekah  for  Isaac 


22  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

by  Eliezer  (Gen.  xxiv.)  is  from  the  literary  point 
of  view  the  most  beautiful  thing  in  the  whole  book 
of  Genesis,  a  prose  idyl. 

The  next  chapter,  "The  generations  of  Isaac," 
has  comparatively  little  to  tell  of  Isaac.  It  tells  us 
rather  the  history  of  his  children  before  his  death. 
Isaac  and  Rebekah  have  two  children,  twins,  of 
whom  Esau,  or  Edom,  is  born  first,  and  Jacob,  or 
Israel,  second.  Esau  is  a  rough,  careless,  generous 
man  of  the  field,  Jacob  is  crafty  and  shrewd,  an 
acquirer  and  a  man  of  civilization.  He  is  a  typical 
Jew  in  the  sense  in  which  Homer's  Ulysses  is  a 
typical  Greek.  Jacob  supplants  Esau,  first  buying 
his  birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage  when  Esau  is 
faint  with  hunger,  and  later  by  the  help  and  at  the 
instigation  of  his  mother  Rebekah,  whose  favorite 
he  is,  defrauding  Esau  of  the  blessing  of  their  blind 
old  father,  which  was  the  equivalent  of  a  deed  of 
primogeniture.  For  this  he  is  obliged  to  flee  for 
his  hfe  from  the  outraged  and  wrathful  EsaU;  and 
betakes  himself  to  Mesopotamia,  to  the  home  of 
his  Aramaean  uncle,  his  mother's  brother.  Here 
there  is  a  constant  struggle  of  wit  between  him 
and  Laban  his  uncle.  When  he  had  worked  seven 
years  for  his  cousin  Rachel,  whom  he  loved,  Laban 
gives  him  her  elder  sister,  the  blear-eyed  Leah. 


LITERARY  ASPECTS  OF  GENESIS.  23 

But  in  this  struggle  of  wit  Jacob  finally  wins.  He 
gains  Rachel  as  well  as  Leah,  and  by  a  cunning 
trick  wins  the  better  part  of  the  increase  of  Laban's 
flock.  Once  more  he  must  take  to  flight,  pursued 
this  time  by  Laban.  On  Mt.  Gilead  Laban  over- 
takes him,  and  the  two  strike  a  covenant  by  which 
Jacob  retains  what  he  has  gained,  and  Mt.  Gilead 
becomes  the  border  between  Israelites  and  Ara- 
maeans. Then  Jacob  crosses  the  Jabbok,  makes 
peace  with  Esau,  and  settles  down  in  Canaan,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Shechem. 

The  next  chapter  is  the  chapter  of  the  gene- 
alogies of  Jacob's  twin  brother,  Esau,  with  lists 
of  the  dukes  and  kings  of  Edom,  which  is  Esau. 
The  fact  that  Edom  was  older  as  a  nation  than 
Israel,  told  mystically  in  the  story  of  Jacob  and 
Esau,  is  here  stated  in  plain  words,  and  we  have 
a  list  of  the  kings  of  Edom  before  there  was  a 
king  in  Israel. 

The  final  chapter  contains  the  story  of  Jacob 
after  the  death  of  Isaac,  but  deals  principally  with 
his  children,  the  name-fathers  of  the  twelve  tribes 
of  Israel.  The  former  chapter  recorded  the  birth 
of  these  children.  Two  of  them,  Joseph  and  Ben- 
jamin, the  last  and  youngest,  were  children  of 
Rachel,   the   favorite   wife.     The   interest   of  this 


24  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

chapter  centres  about  the  fortunes  of  Joseph,  the 
son  of  the  favorite  wife.  He  wins  the  hatred  of  his 
brethren,  and  is  sold  by  them  to  wandering  Arabs, 
who  in  their  turn  sell  him  into  slavery  in  Egypt. 
There,  after  resisting  at  the  risk  of  his  life  the  se- 
ductions of  his  master's  wife,  he  finally  becomes 
a  great  prince,  and  the  administrator  of  the  realm. 
Then  after  some  dramatic  scenes  he  rewards  his 
brothers  good  for  evil,  and  brings  his  father  and 
all  his  family  to  Egypt,  where  he  settles  them 
in  wealth  and  prosperity.  The  story  is  narrated 
with  great  power,  and  is  a  beautiful  piece  of  work 
from  the  artistic  standpoint.  Following  this  there 
is  a  brief  narrative  explaining  in  the  form  of  a 
story  why  the  tribe  of  Ephraim  was  greater  than 
its  elder  brother  Manasseh  ;  then  a  poem,  called  the 
"  Blessing  of  Jacob,"  characterizing  the  twelve 
tribes  of  Israel  as  they  appear  in  history;  and 
finally  the  death  of  Jacob  and  of  his  son  Joseph, 
which  latter  is  the  true  hero  of  this  chapter  as 
Jacob  was  of  the  preceding. 

In  reading  any  book  one  naturally  asks.  Who  is 
its  author?  At  the  head  of  the  book  in  our  Eng- 
lish Bible  we  read :  "  The  First  Book  of  Moses, 
commonly  called  Genesis."  This  title  does  not 
appear  in  the  original  Hebrew.    There  the  book  is 


LITERARY  ASPECTS  OF  GENESIS.  2$ 

anonymous,  without  indication  of  authorship  and 
also  without  name.  The  Hebrews  designated  it  by 
its  first  words  "  In  the  Beginning."  The  name 
which  is  prefixed  to  the  book  in  our  translation,  as 
well  as  the  designation  of  authorship,  is  taken  from 
the  Greek  translation  of  the  work  made  in  Alexan- 
dria in  Egypt  in  the  second  century  B.  c.  or  there- 
abouts. In  the  name  ''  Genesis  "  or  "  Beginnings  " 
the  Greek  translators  were  most  happy.  It  exactly 
expresses  the  contents  of  the  book.  In  entitling  it 
*'  The  First  Book  of  Moses  "  they  were  not  so 
happy.  Almost  all  modern  scholars  reject  this 
title  as  incorrect,  and  regard  the  book  as  written 
some  centuries  after  the  time  of  Moses.  In  view 
of  this  pretty  general  agreement  of  the  scholars  we 
should  probably  do  well  to  drop  the  title  "  First 
Book  of  Moses "  and  content  ourselves,  however 
regretfully,  with  the  anonymity  of  the  original 
Hebrew. 

The  next  question  which  we  ask  ourselves  is, 
Whence  did  the  unknown  author  derive  his  mate- 
rial ?  Is  the  work  an  original  composition,  or  did 
the  author  make  use  of  material  already  in  exist- 
ence ?  If  the  latter,  how  has  he  handled  that 
material  ?  No  one  can  read  the  book  of  Genesis 
critically  without  observing  striking  differences  of 


26  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

style  in  different  parts  of  the  book.  Take,  for  in- 
stance, the  prologue,  the  chapter  on  creation,  and 
compare  it  with  the  story  of  Adam  in  Eden  in  the 
second  chapter.  The  language  of  the  prologue  is 
unornate,  its  method  is  stiff  and  precise,  and  it  is 
repetitious,  after  the  manner  of  legal  documents. 
The  story  of  Adam  in  Eden,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
in  the  language  and  style  of  literature  as  distin- 
guished from  that  of  law  or  theology  or  science. 
It  lacks  the  precision,  but  is  easy,  flowing,  and 
picturesque.  But  not  only  is  there  a  difference  in 
style,  there  is  a  similar  difference  in  the  point  of 
view.  The  theological  conception  of  the  first 
chapter  is  highly  exalted  and  spiritual.  God  is 
a  spirit,  working  in  a  spiritual  manner.  He  is  in- 
finite, and  by  His  word  all  things  are  made.  The 
cosmogony  of  this  chapter  has  never  been  equalled, 
much  less  surpassed.  It  is  a  marvellous  crea- 
tion, and  it  is  the  work  of  a  theologian.  The 
conception  of  God  in  the  second  chapter  is  an- 
thropomorphic, and  the  view  of  His  relation  to 
man  and  the  world  the  popular  view.  God  brings 
the  animals  which  He  has  made  to  the  man  to  see 
what  he  will  call  them,  and  as  he  calls  them  so  they 
are  named.  Then,  as  there  is  no  fit  mate  for  the 
man  among  the  animals,  God  puts  him  to  sleep, 


LITERARY  ASPECTS  OF  GENESIS.  2/ 

and,  removing  one  of  his  ribs,  fashions  out  of  it  a 
woman.  This  has  the  quaHty  of  poetry,  and  there 
is  something  very  beautiful  in  its  quaintness  and 
na'fvete ;  but  it  must  be  characterized  as  folk  lore 
in  distinction  from  the  scientific  and  theological 
treatment  of  the  first  chapter.  Further  than  this, 
we  observe  when  we  read  the  two  chapters  to- 
gether a  certain  amount  of  duplication.  The  sec- 
ond chapter  is  to  some  extent  a  duplicate  of  the 
first.  It  tells  us  once  more,  but  in  a  different 
manner,  of  the  creation  of  the  world,  of  vegetation, 
of  animal  life,  but  above  all  of  man.  In  the  first 
chapter  we  are  told  that  God  created  mankind  in 
His  own  image,  both  male  and  female..  In  the 
second  chapter  the  Lord  God  makes  a  man,  and 
then  later  out  of  his  ribs  fashions  a  woman. 

What  we  observe  in  these  two  chapters  runs 
through  the  whole  book.  There  are  tw^o  distinct 
narratives,  one  legal  and  theological  in  tone,  care- 
ful and  precise,  full  of  genealogies,  exalted  in  its 
spiritual  conceptions,  but  generally  stiff  and  un- 
attractive from  the  literary  standpoint;  the  other, 
attractive  and  often  extremely  beautiful  in  its  style, 
but  naive  and  primitive  in  its  conceptions,  express- 
ing the  imaginings  of  the  folk  as  over  against  the 
thought  of  the  scholar.     Out  of  these  two  nar- 


28  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

ratives  in  the  main  our  author  composed  his  work, 
joining  them  together  in  a  manner  suited  to  his 
time,  but  aHen  to  our  present  Hterary  methods, 
not  concerned  too  carefully  to  conceal  the  joints, 
or  harmonize  minor  disagreements  and  inconsist- 
encies ;  and  it  must  be  confessed  that  his  work  has 
been  well  done.  The  ordinary  reader  even  of 
to-day  does  not  observe  the  discrepancies  and 
duplications,  unless  the  critic  calls  them  to  his 
attention,  and  the  composite  work  has  a  character 
and  charm  of  its  own  through  its  very  differences 
of  style  and  conception  superior  to  that  of  either 
narrative  by  itself.  Out  of  the  one  the  author  has 
fashioned  the  framework,  the  bones  of  his  new 
creation,  and  out  of  the  other  the  flesh  and  blood. 
So  he  has  made  a  finished  and  well-rounded  whole, 
a  true  artistic  creation,  entitling  him  to  the  name 
of  author  and  not  merely  compiler.  To  quote  a 
homely  proverb, 

"  '  T  is  neither  butter  nor  bread, 
But  the  way  it  is  spread." 

Critics  have  pointed  out  that  the  second  of  the 
two  narratives  described  above,  the  folk  narrative, 
is  itself  composite,  composed  of  two  stories  joined 
together  into  one  at  a  still  earlier  date.  They  are, 
however,  so  similar  in  tone  and  so  closely  joined 


LITERARY  ASPECTS  OF  GENESIS.  29 

together  that  it  is  no  easy  task  to  separate  them. 
There  are  further  a  few  documents  or  episodes 
which  may  have  come  to  our  author  in  one  or  the 
other  of  the  two  main  documents,  but  which  are 
manifestly  separate  compositions  older  than  the 
narratives  in  which  they  are  imbedded.  Such  are 
the  poems  scattered  here  and  there  through  the 
book,  the  "  Sword  Song  of  Lamech  "  (iv.  23,  24), 
the  ''Blessings  of  Isaac"  (xxvii.  27-29,  39,  40), 
and  above  all  the  ''  Blessing  of  Jacob  "  (xlix.  2-27), 
none  of  which,  unfortunately,  are  printed  as  poetry 
in  the  authorized  version  of  the  EngHsh  Bible. 
Such  also  is  that  interesting  episode  (xiv.)  where 
Abraham  is  depicted  as  a  valiant  warrior  victorious 
over  the  great  kings  of  Babylonia  and  Elam,  and 
such  are  some  of  the  genealogies  and  lists  incor- 
porated entire  by  later  narrators. 

These  are  our  author's  sources.  What  is  their 
value,  and  what  their  origin  ?  Some  of  the  gen- 
ealogies in  the  first  part  of  the  book,  giving  us  an 
account  of  the  origins  of  civilization,  are  strikingly 
similar  both  in  names  and  treatment  to  certain 
Phoenician  fragments  which  have  come  down  to  us, 
while  recent  discoveries  have  revealed  the  fact  that 
some  of  the  stories  there  contained,  and  especially 
that  of  the  flood,  were  known  to  the  Babylonians. 


30  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

The  material  of  the  first  part  of  Genesis  was  pre- 
sumably the  common  property  either  of  all  the 
peoples  of  Semitic  stock,  or  at  least  of  the  north- 
ern division  of  the  Semites,  to  which  Hebrews, 
Phoenicians,  and  Babylonians  belonged.  Each 
nation  treated  this  material  in  a  different  manner. 
The  peculiar  feature  of  the  Hebrew  treatment  of 
the  common  stock  of  legends  and  traditions  is  its 
vastly  higher  tone  of  spirituality,  that  property 
which  theologians  term  inspiration,  by  which  the 
common  material  has  been  virtually  transformed 
and  filled  with  a  new  and  exalted  significance. 

Comparing  Hebrew  literature  with  Greek,  we 
might  call  the  first  part  or  book  of  Genesis  the 
"  Hesiod  of  the  Jews."  But  if  this  be  compared 
with  "  Hesiod,"  then  the  second  part  must  surely 
be  called  the  *'  Homer  of  the  Jews."  In  it  we 
find  the  traditions  of  the  Hebrew  race,  the  le- 
gends of  local  holy  places,  the  interpretation  of 
tribal  names,  the  explanation  of  sacred  rites  and 
ancestral  customs,  woven  into  a  story  of  the  great 
heroes  of  the  dim  and  shadowy  past.  History  and 
romance,  fact  and  fancy,  religion  and  worldly  wis- 
dom, are  combined  in  one  national  story. 

The  heroes  of  Genesis  are  eternal.  Even  aside 
from  the  deep  religious  significance  of  the  book, 


LITERARY  ASPECTS  OF  GENESIS.  31 

which  cannot  be  overlooked  by  the  serious  student, 
the  work  is  one  which  will  always  be  read  and 
studied  by  young  and  old,  scholars  and  simple 
folk  alike.  The  child  finds  Genesis  the  most 
charming  book  in  the  Bible ;  the  grown  man  hears 
it  with  a  different  but  equally  great  fascination. 
And  to  appreciate  it  fully  it  should  be  heard,  not 
read,  or  at  least  this  is  true  of  those  parts  which 
belong  to  the  folk  narrative.  These  are  the  work 
of  skilful  racojiteurs,  and  some  of  them,  like  the 
"  Destruction  of  Sodom,"  the  ''  Wooing  of  Re- 
bekah,"  the  "Wiles  of  Jacob,"  and  the  story  of 
Joseph  or  the  "  Younger  Brother  "  are  among  the 
most  finished  pieces  of  the  raconteur's  art  which 
have  been  handed  down  in  any  language. 


THE    LAW    OF    MOSES. 


III. 

THE   LAW   OF   MOSES. 
By  prof.  a.  B.  BRUCE,  D.D. 

Of  the  Free  Church  College,  Glasgow,  Scotland, 

'TPHERE  is  no  part  of  the  Old  Testament  of 
-■-  which  it  is  so  difficult  for  ordinary  readers 
to  get  a  clear  idea  as  that  which  relates  to  Hebrew 
legislation.  There  is  such  a  mixing  up  of  narrative 
with  law,  and  such  a  lack  of  classification  in  the 
legal  sections,  that  the  reader  of  Exodus,  Leviticus, 
Numbers,  and  Deuteronomy  rises  from  perusal 
with  a  feeling  of  bewilderment.  The  difficulty  of 
obtaining  any  distinct  conception  of  the  subject  is 
greatly  increased  by  the  fact,  brought  to  light  by 
modern  inquiry,  that  the  laws  contained  in  the 
Pentateuch  do  not  form  a  homogeneous  body  pro- 
ceeding at  one  time  from  one  and  the  same  legis- 
lative mind,  that  of  Moses,  but  really  consist  of 
successive  strata  of  legal  enactments,  representing 
widely  separated  periods  of  time  having  much  in 
common  but  also  not  a  little  in  which  they  do  not 
agree,  so  that  they  cannot  be  united  into  one  har- 


36  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE, 

monious  whole.  All  these  strata  bear,  in  Jewish 
tradition,  the  name  of  Moses ;  but,  in  this  use  of  the 
name, ''  Moses  "  simply  stands  as  a  general  heading 
for  Hebrew  law,  as  "  David  "  stands  for  Hebrew 
poetry  and  "  Solomon  "  for  Hebrew  wisdom. 

The  whole  Old  Testament  books,  and  especially 
the  Books  of  Moses,  stand  very  much  in  need  of 
arranging  and  editing  to  make  them  intelligible 
and  enjoyable  reading  for  ordinary  Christian  peo- 
ple. This  has  been  much  felt  of  late,  and  efforts 
have  been  made  to  meet  the  want.  Among  these 
an  honorable  place  is  due  to  a  work  recently 
published  by  two  American  scholars.  I  refer  to 
"  Scriptures  Hebrew  and  Christian,"  arranged  and 
edited  as  an  introduction  to  the  study  of  the  Bible 
by  Drs.  Edward  T.  Bartlett  and  John  P.  Peters,  of 
Philadelphia.  The  outside  title  of  the  work  (con- 
sisting of  three  volumes)  is  ''The  Scriptures  for 
Young  Readers."  Sunday-school  teachers  would 
find  it  a  most  valuable  aid  towards  opening  up  the 
Bible  to  their  pupils.  In  this  work,  in  Vol.  H., 
"Hebrew  Legislation"  is  given  all  together,  form- 
ing a  chapter  of  some  seventy  pages.  The  matter 
is  not  arranged  in  strict  accordance  with  recent 
critical  views,  but  the  editors  have  had  these  views 
before  their  minds  and  have  benefited  by  them. 


THE  LAW  OF  MOSES.  37 

The  laws  of  Israel  are  classified  under  four  heads : 
I.  The  Ten  Words;  II.  The  Book  of  the  Cove- 
nant; III.  Levitical  Codes;  IV.  The  Deuteronomic 
Code.  Modern  critics  would  invert  the  order  of 
III.  and  IV. 

These  are  the  great  divisions  of  the  subject. 
The  Ten  Words  (the  Decalogue)  form  the  strong 
foundation  of  the  whole  legislative  edifice.  They 
go  back,  according  to  the  weightiest  authorities,  to 
Moses  himself —  his  supremely  important  personal 
contribution  to  the  statute-book  of  Israel.  The 
"  Book  of  the  Covenant  "  means  the  body  of 
laws  found  in  Exodus  xx.  23-xxii.  33.  Of  this 
brief  code,  or  fragment  of  a  code,  Professor  Ryle, 
in  his  valuable  work  on  the  Canon  of  the  Old 
Testament,  says :  *'  It  is  suited  to  the  needs  of  a 
society  in  a  very  early  stage  of  civilization.  If,  as 
may  well  be  allowed,  the  main  substance  of  its  laws 
has  descended  from  the  Mosaic  legislation,  there 
is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  it  has  also,  at  different 
times,  been  adapted,  by  subsequent  revision,  to 
the  requirements  of  the  people  when  they  were  in 
the  enjoyment  of  a  settled  agricultural  life."  "  The 
collection,"  he  adds,  "  is  not  to  be  regarded  in  the 
light  of  an  exhaustive  official  code  of  statutes,  but 
rather  as  an  agglomeration  of  laws,  perhaps  tran- 


38  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

scribed  from  memory  or  extracted  fragmentarily 
for  some  private  purpose  from  an  official  source  " 

(p.  25). 

The  "  Deuteronomic  "  code  means  the  body  of 
laws  on  various  subjects  to  be  found  in  the  Book  of 
Deuteronomy  from  chapter  xii.  onwards,  chapters  i. 
to  xi.  being  a  sort  of  sermon  on  the  importance 
of  keeping  the  law.  The  name  ''Deuteronomy" 
means  "  the  law  over  again,"  the  implied  notion 
being  that  Moses,  before  he  died,  repeated  in  the 
hearing  of  the  people  the  laws  he  had  given  them 
before,  as  if  to  impress  them  with  the  duty  of 
keeping  them  in  remembrance  and  putting  them 
in  practice :  as  if  he  said,  "  Now  do  not  forget 
them,  my  children."  But  the  laws  in  the  fifth  book 
of  the  Pentateuch  are  not  a  mere  repetition  of  those 
in  Exodus  and  Leviticus.  They  differ  in  impor- 
tant particulars.  And  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  the  "  Deuteronomic"  laws  were  not  later  but 
earlier  than  the  "  Levitical  code  "  contained  in  the 
middle  books  of  the  Pentateuch.  The  Levitical 
code  was  the  latest,  uppermost  stratum  of  the 
successive  layers  of  Hebrew  legislation.  It  took 
its  final  form  in  the  hands  of  Ezra  and  his  associ- 
ates, and  represents  the  period  of  the  Babylonish 
exile  and  the  post-captivity  era.     The  Decalogue 


THE  LA  W  OF  MOSES.  39 

goes  back  to  Moses.  The  Book  of  the  Covenant 
may  have  been  in  existence  1000  B.C.  The  Deu- 
teronomic  code  belongs  to  the  time  of  King  Josiah, 
who  reigned  in  the  seventh  century  B.C.  Ezra 
brings  us  a  century  and  a  half  nearer  the  Christian 
era.  All  three  of  the  codes  (II.,  III.,  IV.)  have, 
of  course,  much  in  common  in  respect  both  to 
religion  and  to  civil  life.  The  Hebrews  were  very 
conservative.  They  clung  tenaciously  to  what  was 
old,  and  even  when  they  innovated  they  wished 
the  new  to  pass  for  old.  A  great  deal  of  what 
is  in  all  the  codes  goes  back  probably  to  very 
ancient  times.  Each  code  repeats  the  tradition 
with  variations  or  additions  adapted  to  new  cir- 
cumstances. Common  to  all  the  codes,  including 
the  Decalogue,  is  the  combination  of  religion  and 
morality,  duty  to  God  and  duty  to  man. 

While  all  the  codes  have  much  in  common,  they 
have  their  distinctive  characteristics.  The  grand 
distinction  of  the  Decalogue  is  that  it  deals  only 
with  that  which  is  fundamental  in  religion  and 
morals.  "  Love  God  with  all  your  heart,  and  your 
neighbor  as  yourself"  —  is  its  sum.  There  is  no 
ritual,  but  only  the  ethical,  the  universally  impor- 
tant and  perennially  valid.  Even  the  Fourth  Com- 
mandment is  ethical  at  the  core,  a  humane  statute 


40  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

securing  a  resting-time  for   labor-drudges,  slaves, 
and  even  for  the  beast  of  burden. 

The  Book  of  the  Covenant  on  its  religious  side 
reaffirms  the  great  doctrine  of  the  Decalogue  that 
there  is  but  one  God.  Comparing  it  with  the 
codes  which  come  after,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  it 
does  not  insist  on  07ie  central  sanctuary.  Exodus 
XX.  24,  as  it  is  rendered  in  "The  Scriptures  for 
Young  Readers,"  runs  thus :  ''  Altars  of  earth  shalt 
thou  make  to  me,  and  sacrifice  thereon  thy  burnt 
offerings  and  thy  peace  offerings,  thy  sheep  and 
thine  oxen.  In  every  place  where  I  cause  my 
name  to  be  worshipped  I  will  come  to  thee  and 
bless  thee."  On  the  human  side  this  very  ancient 
body  of  laws  has,  of  course,  much  to  say  on  the 
subject  of  justice  between  man  and  man.  Crude 
and  quaint  in  form,  the  statutes  bearing  on  this 
topic  commend  themselves  as  essentially  just  and 
reasonable.  "  Eye  for  eye,"  "  tooth  for  tooth,"  is 
a  barbarous  law  literally  carried  out;  nevertheless 
these  phrases  embody,  in  homely  form,  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  civil  jurisprudence,  that  for  all 
wrong  there  must  be  adequate  compensation.  The 
rights  of  bondsmen  and  bondswomen  are  not,  as 
we  might  have  supposed,  overlooked  in  this  primi- 
tive code.     Indeed,  that  is  the  very  first  topic  dealt 


THE  LAW  OF  MOSES.  4 1 

with  in  the  code,  after  the  duty  owing  to  Jehovah 
has  been  briefly  enforced  (Exodus  xxi.  2-11). 
The  fact  may  indicate  that  there  was  much  need 
for  this  humane  protective  legislation  to  defend  the 
weak  against  the  strong,  which  the  Bible  never 
fails  to  do.  Just  one  other  feature  may  be  noticed 
in  this  early  body  of  laws,  what  may  be  called  the 
element  of  kindliness,  or  Christianity  anticipated : 
"  If  thou  meet  thine  enemy's  ox  or  his  ass  astray, 
thou  shalt  bring  it  back  to  him.  If  thou  see  the 
ass  of  him  that  hateth  thee  fallen  under  his  burden, 
thou  shalt  forbear  to  leave  him "  (Exodus  xxiii. 
4,  5).  How  much  is  involved  in  this  simple  injunc- 
tion !  It  is  in  one  concrete  instance  an  antici- 
pation of  the  great  law  of  Jesus,  "  Love  your 
enemies." 

Passing  on  to  the  Deuteronomic  code,  formulated 
centuries  later,  one  obvious  point  of  contrast  is 
much  greater  elaboration.  The  little  Book  of  the 
Covenant  has  grown  to  be  a  large,  bulky  book  of 
laws,  with  a  lengthy  sermon  prefixed  to  it.  Yet, 
after  all,  it  is,  in  the  main,  merely  an  expansion  of 
the  earlier  code.  On  the  religious  side,  however, 
there  is  one  very  marked  difference.  The  Deca- 
logue and  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  had  both  said, 
with  emphasis,  one  God.     But  Deuteronomy  says 


42  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

not  only  one  God,  but,  with  quite  remarkable  em- 
phasis, one  sanctuary.  The  law  enforcing  this 
stands  at  the  head  of  the  code  (chapter  xii.  1-7). 
By  the  time  this  new  code  was  compiled,  it  had 
been  found  that  the  early  freedom  in  worship  had 
led  to  great  abuses,  to  disastrous  imitation  of  the 
vile  rites  of  the  Canaanites.  Therefore  the  law  of 
a  central  sanctuary  was  regarded  by  the  best  men 
in  Israel  as  a  reform,  and  won  the  earnest  support 
of  the  prophets  of  the  seventh  century  before 
Christ.  In  reference  to  what  I  have  called  the 
Christian  element,  what  we  have  to  note  is  not  con- 
trast but  development.  The  law  of  kindness  has 
grown  to  larger  dimensions,  and  now  embraces  a 
variety  of  particulars,  such  as  that  the  hungry  man 
shall  be  at  liberty  to  help  himself  from  a  neighbor's 
standing  grain  or  vineyard,  and  that  gleanings  must 
be  left  for  the  poor  in  the  orchard  and  harvest- 
field.  Even  the  wants  of  the  beast  of  burden  are 
mercifully  provided  for.  "  Thou  shall  not  muzzle 
the  ox  when  he  treadeth  out  the  corn  "  (Deuter- 
onomy XXV.  4).  ''  Doth  God  take  care  for  oxen?  " 
asked  Saint  Paul.  The  God  of  the  ancient  He- 
brews certainly  did,  and  that  doubtless  was  one  rea- 
son why  our  Lord  had  a  preference  for  the  Book  of 
Deuteronomy,  as  shown  by  the  quotations  from  it 


THE  LA  W  OF  MOSES.  43 

in  the  story  of  the  Temptation.  The  second  half 
of  Isaiah  and  Deuteronomy  were  tvvo  favorite 
books  of  the  Old  Testament  with  Jesus.  If  we 
knew  them  as  well  as  he  did,  we  should  not  be 
surprised  at  this.  The  spirit  of  prophecy,  in  its 
noblest  form,  breathes  through  both. 

I  have  left  myself  very  little  space  to  speak  of 
the  Levitical  code,  the  latest  of  the  four.  The  out- 
standing feature  of  it  is  the  great  prominence  it 
gives  to  ritual.  Priests,  holy  furniture,  holy  times, 
sacrifices,  rules  for  securing  ceremonial  cleanness,  — 
these  and  the  like  are  the  great  topics  of  Leviticus. 
We  are  in  a  different  world  from  that  of  the  prophet 
Moses  with  his  Ten  Words  concerning  the  great 
fundamentals  of  religion  and  morality.  It  is  not 
that  the  men  of  Ezra's  time  did  not  care  for  the 
fundamentals.  It  is  that  the  times,  as  they  judge, 
call  for  laying  stress  on  ritual.  "■  One  God!'  said 
Moses ;  **  One  sanctuary!'  said  the  reformers  of 
Josiah's  time ;  '*  One  carefully  regulated  system  of 
worship  at  the  one  sanctuary,"  said  Ezra  and  his 
coadjutors.  Probably  the  last  mentioned  move- 
ment was  necessary,  yet  the  prominence  given  to 
ritual  was  the  beginning  of  a  great  evil,  —  the 
growth  of  legalism  and  rabbinism. 

In  the  Levitical  code,  as  distinguished  from  the 


44  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

Deuteronomic,  the  class  of  religious  officials  has 
undergone  development  and  gained  in  status.  In 
Deuteronomy  priests  and  Levites  are  one;  the 
standing  phrase  is,  "  the  priests,  the  Levites."  In 
Leviticus  and  the  late  historical  books  (Chronicles) 
they  are  distinct :  priests  and  Levites.  In  Deuter- 
onomy they  are  a  poor  class,  and  as  such  recom- 
mended to  the  consideration  of  the  charitable.  In 
the  Levitical  code  there  is  an  elaborate  system  of 
tithes,  which,  if  worked  out,  would  make  the  once 
poor  class  a  rich  and  influential  corporation. 


THE    AGE    OF   THE   JUDGES. 


IV. 

THE   AGE   OF   THE   JUDGES. 
By   prof.    L.    W.    batten,    Ph.D. 

Of  the  Episcopal  Divinity  School,  Philadelphia. 

nr^HE  treatment  of  this  subject  is  limited  in  two 
-■-  ways,  —  by  the  space  at  command  and  by 
the  character  of  the  series  to  which  this  article  be- 
longs. In  other  words,  it  is  a  brief  literary  treat- 
ment of  an  interesting  and  important  epoch  in  the 
history  of  Israe\. 

The  sources  of  information  are  the  books  of 
Judges  and  Ruth,  with  various  incidental  allusions 
in  other  parts  of  the  Bible,  in  the  New  Testament 
as  well  as  in  the  Old.  These  scattered  notices, 
however,  coming  mostly  from  ages  long  subsequent, 
are  based  on  the  one  book  which  is  our  main  re- 
liance, and  have,  therefore,  but  a  secondary  value. 
There  is  much  difference  of  opinion  about  the  date 
of  the  writing  of  the  Book  of  Ruth  ;  and,  though  it 
is  probably  a  product  of  the  settled  times  of  the 
monarchy,  we  may  fairly  accept  the  statement  with 
which  the  book  opens  —  ''  And  it  was  in  the  times 


48  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

when  the  judges  judged  "  —  as  giving  the  period  to 
which  the  events  narrated  belong,  even  though,  as 
Driver  says,  "  distance  seems  to  have  mellowed  the 
rude,  unsettled  age  of  the  Judges." 

Our  chief  source  of  information  is,  therefore,  the 
Book  of  Judges.  If  we  are  lacking  in  variety 
of  sources,  we  gain  in  other  ways.  As  Dean 
Stanley  says,  "  Hardly  any  portion  of  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures,  whether  by  its  actual  date  or  by  the 
vividness  of  its  representations,  brings  us  nearer  to 
the  times  described." 

As  the  most  casual  reader  must  have  observed, 
this  book  falls  into  three  parts  of  quite  different 
character.  There  is  an  introductory  part,  i.  i- 
ii.  5  ;  the  main  body  of  the  book,  the  stories  of  the 
heroes,  ii.  6-xvi.  31 ;  and  an  appendix  containing 
two  stories  which  throw  light  on  the  social  and 
religious  life  of  the  times,  xvii.-xxi.  The  first 
part  describes  the  condition  of  the  country  at  the 
opening  of  this  period ;  not  only  has  it  marked 
affinities  with  the  Book  of  Joshua,  but  some  pas- 
sages are  almost  identical  with  passages  in  that 
book.  The  second  part  is  made  up  of  a  collection 
of  stories  of  Israelitish  heroes  from  different  sources 
put  together  for  a  religious  purpose.  There  is 
unity   of  aim  with  diversity   of  authorship.     The 


THE   AGE    OF  THE  JUDGES.  49 

aim  is  expressed  in  the  setting  in  which  nearly 
every  narrative  is  placed, —  '*  And  the  people  of 
Israel  again  did  that  which  was  evil  in  the  eyes  of 
Jahveh,  and  Jahveh  delivered  them  into  the  power 
of.  .  .  .  And  the  people  of  Israel  cried  unto  Jahveh, 
and  Jahveh  raised  up  to  them  a  deliverer,  .  .  . 
and  the  land  had  rest."  This  setting  is  the  work 
of  an  editor  who  combined  the  various  narratives 
to  show  the  providential  hand  of  God  in  the  darkest 
and  most  troubled  period  of  Israel's  history. 

In  one  case  —  the  story  of  Barak  and  Deborah 
—  the  editor  had  at  command  and  has  happily 
preserved  both  a  prose  and  a  poetical  account. 
The  latter,  the  Song  of  Deborah,  is  the  earliest 
portion  of  the  book,  probably  one  of  the  earliest 
portions  of  Biblical  literature,  and  apparently  a 
product  of  the  Northern  Kingdom. 

The  third  part  narrates  two  incidents,  —  the  ex- 
pedition of  the  Danites  against  Laish,  xvii.,  xviii., 
and  the  war  with  Benjamin,  xix.-xxi.  These 
narratives  are  placed  at  the  end  of  the  book  on  ac- 
count of  their  subject,  not  because  they  belong  to 
the  closing  part  of  this  period. 

The  age  of  the  Judges  properly  includes  Eli  and 
Samuel,  the  latter  marking  the  transition  to  a 
new  epoch   of  a  different  character.     Samuel  was 

4 


50  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

the  connecting  link  between  the  Theocracy  and 
the  Monarchy. 

**  It  is  by  representing  the  mode  of  being  of  a 
whole  nation  and  a  whole  age,"  says  Taine,  '*  that 
a  writer  rallies  round  him  the  sympathies  of  an 
entire  age  and  an  entire  nation."  We  read  litera- 
ture not  so  much  for  itself  as  for  the  life  of  which  it  is 
an  expression.  Indeed,  the  test  of  literature  is  its 
power  to  portray  Hfe,  real  or  ideal.  We  must  look 
into  the  Book  of  Judges  to  read  the  Hfe  of  which  it  is 
a  picture.  **  For  merely  human  interest,"  says  Stan- 
ley, *'  for  the  lively  touches  of  ancient  manners,  for 
the  succession  of  romantic  incidents,  for  the  con- 
sciousness that  we  are  living  face  to  face  with  the 
persons  described,  there  is  nothing  like  the  history 
of  the  Judges  from  Othniel  to  Eli." 

The  period  is  often  called  "  the  age  of  anarchy."  ^ 
The  Book  of  Judges  gives  color  to  that  designation, 
expressing  forcibly  the  unsettled  condition  :  "  In 
those  days  there  was  no  king  in  Israel ;  each  one 
was  wont  to  do  that  which  was  right  in  his  own 
eyes  "  (xvii.  6).  Moses  had  held  the  tribes  together 
under  his  rule,  trying  to  secure  a  national  unity 
without  sacrificing  tribal  rights.  Joshua  held 
them  together  by    his  great   power  as  a  military 

1  E.g.  Scriptures  Hebrew  and  Christian,  Pt.  I.  c.  i8. 


THE  AGE   OF  THE  JUDGES.  5 1 

leader,  and  by  the  hard  necessities  of  a  war  for 
existence.  Before  Joshua's  death  the  tribes  took 
up  their  abodes  in  the  sections  assigned  to  them. 
The  conquest,  however,  was  not  complete.  Each 
tribe  had  battles  of  its  own  to  fight  against  the 
remnant  of  the  Canaanites.  Joshua  had  not  at- 
tempted to  appoint  a  successor,  as  Moses  had  done. 
The  times  were  such  as  to  make  such  action  im- 
possible, as  each  tribe  was  concerned  with  its  own 
affairs,  and  could  not  easily  be  induced  to  lend  a 
helping  hand  to  the  others. 

Judah  and  Simeon,  however,  united  their  forces 
and  succeeded  in  driving  all  the  Canaanites  from 
their  borders,  except  those  in  the  valley  who  pos- 
sessed the  formidable  chariots  of  iron.  Joseph 
(Ephraim)  succeeded  in  capturing  Bethel,  and 
secured  a  sure  footing  in  their  portion.  Benjamin, 
Manasseh,  Zebulon,  Asher,  and  Naphtali  were  only 
partially  successful  in  the  conquest  of  their  por- 
tions, having  hostile  tribes  within  their  borders 
who  were  only  gradually  reduced  to  subjection. 
The  tribe  of  Dan  was  least  successful.  They  were 
forced  into  the  mountains  by  the  fierce  Amorites, 
and  made  so  little  headway  against  them  that  a 
part  of  the  tribe  went  far  to  the  north  and  cap- 
tured the  peaceful  Phoenician  city  of  Laish,  and 


52  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

thus  Dan  —  the  new  name  of  the  city  —  became 
the   northernmost  point  of  Israel. 

This  stage  of  the  conquest  continued  a  consider- 
able time  after  the  death  of  Joshua.  It  is  intro- 
ductory to  the  age  of  Judges,  the  time  when  there 
was  neither  king  nor  judge  in  Israel. 

But  there  was  as  yet  no  peace  for  Israel.  En- 
emies within  their  borders  were  supplemented  by 
enemies  without.  The  wars  of  the  time  were  for 
the  most  part  mere  plundering  expeditions.  The 
foes  of  Israel  tried  to  reduce  them  to  the  condition 
of  tributaries,  so  as  to  make  the  land  a  source  of 
revenue.  The  enemies  came  from  all  directions 
—  Cushan-rishathaim  from  the  distant  east,  Sisera 
from  the  north,  the  Philistines  from  the  west,  Mid- 
ian,  Moab,  and  Ammon  from  across  the  Jordan. 
It  was  the  invasions  of  these  various  nations  that 
brought  out  the  heroic  characters  of  the  time,  the 
men  whose  valiant  deeds  were  praised  in  early  song 
and  story,  and  whose  character  as  God-fearing  and 
God-directed  men  was  ever  held  in  sacred  remem- 
brance.^ The  deeds  of  these  men  made  a  deep  im- 
pression on  the  popular  mind,  because  the  nation, 
or  some  part  of  it,  was  delivered  by  them  after 
years  of  defeat  and  humiliation.     It  is  one  thing  to 

1  See  I  Sam.  xii.  1 1 ;  Heb.  xi.  32. 


THE  AGE   OF  THE  JUDGES.  53 

resist  the  first  encroachments  of  a  hostile  power ; 
it  is  quite  another  thing  to  break  the  hold  of  an 
enemy  which  has  for  years  held  oppressive  sway 
over  a  people  whose  spirit  is  crushed  and  whose 
hope  is  dead. 

The  Judges  are  thirteen  in  number.  Of  these, 
Abimelech  stands  by  himself  as  one  who  brought 
upon  his  country  war  and  distress  rather  than  vic- 
tory and  peace.  Shamgar,  Tola,  Jair,  Ibzan,  Elon, 
and  Abdon  are  little  more  than  names  to  us. 
Othniel  and  Ehud  are  of  only  secondary  impor- 
tance, while  the  great  Judges  were  Barak  (with 
whom  the  name  of  Deborah  is  indissolubly  asso- 
ciated), Gideon,  Jephthah,  and  Samson  —  these  are 
the  men  whose  heroism  people  never  forgot. 

The  Enghsh  word  ''judge"  but  inadequately 
renders  the  Hebrew  shophet.  In  Phcenician,  as  we 
know  from  inscriptions  and  from  Livy,  the  same 
word,  sicffet,  was  applied  to  a  civil  ruler,  who  ex- 
ercised, as  a  matter  of  course,  judicial  functions. 

It  is  expressly  stated  of  each  of  the  chief  Judges, 
except  Jephthah,  that  he  was  raised  up  of  God  to 
rescue  Israel  when  punishment  had  effected  its  dis- 
ciplinary purpose.  Barak  undertook  the  war  at  the 
prophetic  command  of  Deborah,  who  is  as  much 
the  hero  of  the  victory  over  Sisera  as   Barak  or 


54  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

"Jael,  the  wife  of  Heber  the  Kenite."  Even  in 
the  case  of  the  rude  border-chief  Jephthah,  it  is 
clearly  impHed  that  his  mission  was  the  result  of 
God's  grief  at  Israel's  suffering  (x.  i6  ff.). 

Like  all  other  great  men,  the  Judges  were  the 
product  of  the  times.  Great  men  are  not  really 
wanting  in  any  age,  only  the  exigency  to  call  them 
out.  Israel  suffered  until  some  soul  moved  by  the 
Spirit  of  God  could  bear  it  no  longer.  Such,  a 
one  takes  his  life  in  his  own  hands,  organizes  as 
many  bold  hearts  as  he  can  stir  up  in  sympathy 
with  himself,  and  goes  against  the  enemy.  The 
success  of  the  expedition  brought  the  leader  into 
such  prominence  that  he  became  the  natural  ruler 
of  the  people  for  life.  In  one  case  the  crown 
was  offered  to  the  returning  victor,  Gideon,  and 
in  another  case  —  Jephthah's  —  the  permanent 
headship  of  the  tribe  was  the  price  of  leaving 
the  freebooter's  careless  life  for  the  war  against 
Ammon. 

One  Judge  stands  quite  apart  from  the  rest  in 
several  ways.  Samson  —  whose  name  is  derived 
from  the  Hebrew  word  for  sun,  i.  e.  shemesh  —  was 
appointed  to  his  mission  before  he  was  born.  Like 
Isaac,  Samuel,  and  John  the  Baptist,  he  was  born 
of  a  mother  whose  expectation  of  children  had  long 


THE  AGE   OF  THE  JUDGES.  55 

since  passed  away.  Unlike  the  other  Judges,  his 
work  was  purely  individual ;  he  never  associated 
others  with  him,  but  fought  his  battles  single- 
handed.  So  far  as  the  records  go,  he  never  lifted 
his  finger  in  his  divine  mission  against  the  Philis- 
tines except  in  personal  revenge.  Milton  has 
made  much  of  his  last  days  in  his  great  poem, 
"  Samson  Agonistes,"  but,  unhappily,  his  picture 
of  Samson's  nobleness  is  not  in  agreement  with 
the  hero's  last  prayer :  "  Strengthen  me,  O  God  ! 
this  once,  that  I  may  have  revenge  on  the  Phi- 
listines at  one  stroke  for  my  two  eyes"  (xvi.  28). 

The  collector  of  these  stories  believed  that  he 
saw  in  the  deeds  of  the  heroes,  even  of  Jephthah 
and  Samson,  the  hand  of  God  working  for  the  wel- 
fare of  his  people.  He  was  not  mistaken  ;  for  the 
more  we  study  the  times,  the  more  plainly  we  can 
see  that  into  the  darkness  the  light  was  beginning 
to  penetrate,  that  out  of  the  disorder  order  was 
beginning  to  emerge,  —  in  other  words,  that  a  few 
people  at  least  were  made  to  sec  that  Israel  must 
have  a  unity  both  political  and  religious.  It  was 
impossible  for  Israel  to  prosper  worshipping  a  host 
of  gods  or  insisting  too  much  on  the  independ- 
ence of  the  tribes.  The  Song  of  Deborah  shames 
the  tribes  who  refused  to  join  in  the  war  in  which 


56  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

the  prophetess,  with  divinely  given  insight,  could 
see  that  all  had  a  common  interest ;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  gives  just  praise  to  those  who  rallied 
about  the  standard  of  Barak.  But  the  success  of 
that  battle  was  not  due  wholly  to  the  valor  of 
leaders  or  men,  but  to  the  help  that  came  from 
above : 

"  They  fought  from  heaven, 
The  stars  in  their  courses  fought  against  Sisera"  (v.  20). 

*'The  people  learned  by  perpetual  struggle," 
says  Ewald,  ''  to  defend  right  valiantly  their 
new  earthly  home  and  the  free  exercise  of  their 
religion,  and  were  thereby  preparing  for  coming 
generations  a  sacred  place,  where  that  religion 
and  national  culture  might  unfold  itself  freely  and 
fully." 

Dean  Stanley  compares  this  period  to  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  the  comparison  is  certainly  striking ;  but 
for  Americans  it  is  more  suggestive  to  compare 
the  age  of  the  Judges  with  the  troubled  period  of 
our  history  immediately  following  the  Revolution- 
ary War,  when  we  were  "  one  nation  to-day,  and 
thirteen  to-morrow."  Under  the  great  Washington 
and  the  pressure  of  war  the  Colonies  were  held 
together  pretty  firmly ;  but  as  soon  as  the  pressure 


THE  AGE   OF  THE  JUDGES.  57 

was  relieved  the  period  of  disorder  began.  From 
the  very  confusion,  however,  the  great  lesson  of 
national  unity  was  learned  in  part,  though  it  took 
another  bloody  war  to  make  the  ''  Union  forever  " 
an  unquestioned  fact.  The  united  kingdom  of  all 
Israel,  and  the  worship  of  Jehovah  alone  as  the 
God  of  Israel,  were  the  two  great  products  of  this 
age,  not  springing  to  the  birth  full-grown  indeed, 
but  so  far  established  that  no  permanent  backward 
movement  was  possible. 


RUTH   AND    ESTHER. 


V. 

RUTH   AND   ESTHER. 
By  the  rev.  JAMES  M.  WHITON,  Ph.D. 

Brooklyn,  New  York. 

f~^  OULD  the  two  books  we  here  put  together 
^-^  stand  together  in  our  Bible,  it  were  in 
happy  contrast,  so  hke  and  yet  so  unHke.  Here 
the  Peasant  and  the  Queen  exhibit,  in  the  idyl  of 
the  one  and  the  drama  of  the  other,  in  times  eight 
centuries  apart,  the  same  nobility  of  soul  amid  the 
sorest  trials,  whether  in  the  country  or  in  the 
court.  And  yet  it  is  not  a  less  feHcitous  arrange- 
ment which  in  our  Bible,  following  the  order  of 
the  Septuagint  and  of  the  Vulgate,  between  the 
scenes  of  blood  and  misery  depicted  in  the  books 
of  the  Judges  and  of  Samuel,  introduces,  like  the 
desert  oasis  with  its  palms  and  well,  the  sweet 
prose-poem  of  Ruth.  Here  is  rest  for  the  soul  in 
its  artless  tale  of  days  that  seem 

"  Bound  each  to  each  by  natural  piety," 

and  of  a  love  that  ''  many  waters  cannot  quench." 
The  sketch  of  the  patriarchal  simplicity  in  which 


62  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

the  wealthy  landowner  superintends  his  farm-hands, 
and  shares  their  noonday  meal,  seems  designed  to 
strike  the  chords  in  which  Horace,  weary  of  the 
splendor  of  imperial  Rome,  loved  to  sing  of  the 
unspoiled  country.  That  its  heroine  is  a  woman 
of  the  fiercely  proscribed  race,  which  might  not 
even  to  the  tenth  generation  enter  into  the  congre- 
gation of  Israel,  seems  almost  in  intentional  con- 
trast with  the  rigor  with  which  Ezra  put  all  mixed 
marriages  under  ban.  At  least,  it  reminds  us  of 
the  protest  which  Jesus  made  against  Jewish  intol- 
erance by  choosing  as  his  pattern  of  neighborly 
love  a  Samaritan.  The  Talmud  has  admiringly 
reckoned  it  as  chief  among  the  Hagiographa,  —  the 
third  principal  division  of  the  Old  Testament.  It 
was  the  portion  of  Scripture  appointed  to  be  read 
at  Pentecost,  in  whose  liberal  festivities  the  Law 
enjoined  bountiful  remembrance  of  the  poor,  the 
stranger,  and  the  widow.     For  such  was  Ruth. 

The  theme  is  common,  yet  one  that  we  weary 
of  no  more  than  of  the  grass  and  the  flowers,  — 
filial  piety,  devoted,  courageous,  self-respecting, 
winning  recognition  and  reward  by  patient,  modest 
merit.  It  comes  to  us  from  what  we  deem  more 
dark  and  cruel  times  than  ours,  bearing  witness  to 
the  unspoiled    goodness   that  from  old    has    ever 


RUTH  AND  ESTHER.  63 

dwelt  on  earth.  Unsurpassed  in  naive  simplicity, 
it  is  in  some  respects  unique.  It  beautifies  with 
the  tenderest  sympathy  a  relationship  that  is  often 
too  fruitful  of  antipathy.  In  the  crisis  of  events 
it  borrows  a  peculiarly  romantic  flavor  from  the 
singularity  of  a  marriage  claim  legitimate  then,  but 
unimaginable  now. 

In  the  four  chapters  of  the  book  four  scenes 
unfold,  in  which  a  blighted  life  is  made,  through 
the  struggle  of  devoted  love,  to  bloom  again. 

Famine  has  made  Naomi  an  exile,  and  death 
has  made  her  a  childless  widow  in  a  foreign  land. 
In  her  old  home  her  lot  will  be  less  intolerable, 
and  thither  she  will  return.  But  her  daughter-in- 
law,  Ruth,  insists  on  going  with  her,  though  there 
the  intolerable  lot  which  Naomi  shuns  will  be  her 
lot,  —  a  childless  widow  among  foreigners.  Her 
impassioned  protestation  against  Naomi's  affec- 
tionate remonstrance  has  become  the  classic  con- 
fession of  the  most  indissoluble  union  known  to 
love,  —  "  The  Lord  do  so  to  me,  and  more  also,  if 
aught  but  death  part  thee  and  me."  Here  between 
the  lines  we  see  on  what  a  home  had  fallen  the 
midnight  of  trouble,  which  forms  the  first  scene  of 
the  story. 

So  Naomi  returns,  and  Ruth  with  her,  to  Beth- 


64  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

lehem,  where  well-to-do  kinsmen  still  dwelt.  That 
they  were  also  well  disposed  the  story  shows.  But 
Naomi's  future  was  now  involved  with  Ruth's,  and 
Ruth  had  to  win  reputation  in  Bethlehem.  In 
undertaking  the  duty  of  breadwinning  for  them 
both  she  soon  does  this.  In  going  forth  as  a 
gleaner  among  the  village  poor,  ''  her  hap  was  "  to 
Hght  on  the  rich  kinsman's  field.  He  knew  her 
story,  but  not  her  face.  On  learning  her  name, 
he  gives  her,  not  only  protection  from  the  insult 
to  which  her  work  might  expose  her,  but  a  share 
in  the  reapers'  luncheon,  and,  above  all,  the  kindly 
encouragement  for  which  the  struggling  poor  hun- 
ger equally  with  their  bread.  Thus  the  second 
scene  of  the  story  brings,  after  the  midnight  of 
trouble,  the  morning  star  of  hope. 

In  the  third  scene  we  come  to  the  dawn  of  the 
day.  Assured  now  of  the  esteem  of  the  rich  kins- 
man for  Ruth  as  well  as  for  herself,  Naomi  has 
recourse  to  the  custom  then  prevailing,  which 
recognized  a  childless  widow's  right  to  re-marriage 
with  the  next  of  kin,  the  first  son  of  such  a  mar- 
riage being  reckoned  as  the  heir  of  her  deceased 
husband,  that  his  name  might  be  perpetuated. 
Bold  as  may  seem  the  proceeding  of  Ruth,  in 
obedience   to    her    mother-in-law's    directions    to 


RUTH  A. YD  ESTHER.  6$ 

claim  this  right  of  Boaz,  it  was  strictly  legitimate. 
Moreover,  assured  trustfulness  in  assured  goodness 
can  presume  on  much.  That  some  risk  was  run 
by  each  in  that  solitary  night-colloquy  appears  in 
his  word  of  caution :  ''  Let  it  not  be  known  that 
a  woman  came  into  the  floor."  But  to  the  pure 
all  things  are  pure.  More  of  real  modesty  is  in 
a  chaste  frankness  than  in  prudery.  Doubtless 
Ruth's  trustful  boldness  lent  a  charm  to  her  virtue. 
The  village  magnate  feels  the  charm,  and  warms 
toward  his  worthy  claimant  with  a  tenderness  more 
fatherly  than  lover-like.  "  My  daughter,  fear  not; 
I  will  do  to  thee  all  that  thou  requirest,  for  all 
the  city  of  my  people  doth  know  that  thou  art  a 
virtuous  woman." 

The  concluding  scene  is  occupied  with  the  legal 
transactions  in  which  Boaz  fulfils  this  promise, 
and  with  the  wedding  amid  public  congratulations. 
A  son  is  then  born  to  Ruth,  who  thus  became  the 
great-grandmother  of  King  David.  So  long  before 
the  writer's  time  had  these  things  happened,  that 
it  was  necessary  for  him  to  explain  the  legal  process 
by  saying,  "Now  this  was  the  manner  in  former 
time  in  Israel."  The  congratulations  offered  to 
Naomi,  when  in  her  grandson's  birth  her  midnight 
of  trouble  has  changed  into  the  noonday  of  pros- 

S 


66  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

perity,  are  for  Ruth's  sake,  ''  for  thy  daughter-in- 
law,  who  loveth  thee,  who  is  better  to  thee  than 
seven  sons,  hath  borne  him,"  —  a  word  which  in 
the  Hps  of  Hebrew  women  was  the  hyperbole  of 
praise.  In  the  love  of  David  for  Jonathan,  for  the 
rebel  ingrate  Absalom,  in  that  deep  spring  of 
feeling  whence  flowed  his  psalms,  we  recognize  the 
spirit  of  his  ancestress,  the  loving  Ruth. 

"  The  fountains  of  Hebraic  song 
Are  in  thy  heart,  fair  Ruth, 
Fountains  whose  tides  are  deep  and  strong 
In  deathless  love  and  truth." 

Well  worthy  is  her  story  of  a  place  in  the  sacred 
volume,  whose  promise  of  a  heaven  to  come  is  too 
often  permitted  to  obscure  its  teaching,  that  this 
depends  on  culture  here  of  the  heavenly  spirit  of 
self-sacrificing  love.  In  Ruth  the  Christian  poet's 
lesson  lives  incarnate,  — 

"  The  trivial  round,  the  common  task, 
Would  furnish  all  we  need  to  ask  — 
Room  to  deny  ourselves,  a  road 
To  bring  us  daily  nearer  God." 


With  Esther  we   enter   a  larger  world,  but  the 
same  spirit  is  dominant  there  as  in  Ruth's  narrower 


RUTH  AND   ESTHER.  6/ 

Sphere,  —  the  high  resolve,  the  steadfast  constancy,  | 

that 

"grasps  the  skirts  of  happy  chance, 

And  breasts  the  blows  of  circumstance," 

but  for  a  more  briUiant  prize  than  idyUic  Bethle- 
hem offered : 

"  And  lives  to  clutch  the  golden  keys, 

To  mould  a  mighty  State's  decrees, 

And  shape  the  whisper  of  the  throne." 

Here  are  regal  splendor,  despotic  power,  sensual 
passion,    intriguing   servility,  murderous    revenge. 
And  here  on  this  dark  and  stormy  sea  is  a  young 
woman,    gifted   with   beauty,   discretion,    courage, 
who  masters  these  menacing  elements  and  becomes 
the  savior  of  her  people.     Her  dramatic  story  is 
full  of  the  strange  turns    that  fancy  delights    in, 
from   the  distaff  to  the  throne,  from  the  banquet 
to  the  gibbet;    full  also  of  the  singular  chances, 
so-called,  m  which  the  most  trivial  things,  as  in  a 
hair-balance,    determine   destiny.      These    give    it 
the  zest  of  a  thrilling  novel.     Yet  truth   is  often 
stranger  than  fiction,  as  in  the  story  of  that  illegiti- 
mate child  of  a  Livonian  peasant-girl,  who  became 
Catherine  I.  of  Russia. 

Less    salient,  yet   not   less   distinctive,   are   the 
book's  other  singularities,  so  intensely  Jewish  in 


68  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

national  feeling,  so  utterly  un-Jewish  in  the  silence 
about  the  God  and  the  land  and  the  law  of  Israel. 
It  reads  hke  a  fragment  of  Persian  history,  a  secu- 
lar book  in  the  sacred  volume.  But  secular  and 
sacred  history  are  one  to  him  who  sees  in  all 

"  One  God,  one  law,  one  element, 

And  one  far-off  divine  event, 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 

The  book  of  Esther  is  in  form  a  history,  in  sub- 
stance a  drama,  quite  compliant,  too,  with  the 
Horatian  canon,  that  a  drama  should  consist  of 
five  acts,  no  more,  no  less :  — 

"Neve  minor  neu  sit  quinto  productior  actu." 

The  most  natural  division  of  it  is  as  follows : 
Act  I.  Esther's  Elevation  to  the  Throne  (chap- 
ters i.,  ii.).  Act  II.  Haman's  Plot,  and  Esther's 
Trouble  (chapters  iii.,  iv.).  Act  III.  Esther's  Cour- 
age, and  Haman's  Fall  (chapters  v.,  vi.,  vii.).  Act 
IV.  Esther's  Undoing  of  Haman's  Plot,  and  Mor- 
decai's  Elevation  to  Haman's  Place  (chapter  viii.). 
Act  V.  Esther's  Deliverance  of  her  People,  and 
the  Institution  of  its  Commemoration  (chapter  ix.). 
Epilogue :  The  Glory  of  Ahasuerus,  and  the  Great- 
ness of  Mordecai  (chapter  x.). 


RUTH  AND  ESTHER.  6g 

Dear  to  the  Jewish  heart  is  this  book  for  the 
national  spirit  that  glows  therein.  Fitly  is  it 
appointed  to  be  read  at  Purim,  a  national  rather 
than  a  reUgious  festival,  commemorating  a  national 
deliverance.  Such  a  festival  befits  such  a  people, 
whose  symbol  is  the  bush  that  burned  but  was  not 
consumed,  and  whose  history  is  the  record  of  the 
age-long  deliverance  of  a  life  ofttimes  marvellously 
preserved. 

In  the  first  act  a  cup  of  wine  too  much,  and  the 
tipsy  whim  which  resulted  from  it,  lead  strangely 
to  the  elevation  of  a  Jewish  maiden  to  be  Queen 
of  Persia  in  a  brilliant  transformation,  which  is 
reflected  in  her  change  of  name  from  Hadassah 
(myrtle)  to  Esther  (star).  Presently  her  uncle, 
Mordecai,  chances  to  discover  a  plot  against  the  \ 
king,  and  she  reports  it  in  his  name,  but  his  merit 
goes  unrequited  at  the  time,  —  another  chance,  but 
by  and  by  of  happy  consequence. 

In  the  second  act  the  fell  fury  of  a  hereditary 
foeman,  in  a  feud  nine  centuries  inveterate,  un- 
wittingly strikes  at  the  queen's  Hfe  by  a  plot  to 
exterminate  her  people.  But  the  higher  power  to 
which  he  refers  the  determination  of  the  day  of 
doom  by  the  chance  of  the  lot  fixes  it  eleven  1 
months  ahead,  and  secures  time  for  countervailing 


70  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

agencies  to  work.  Esther  intervenes  at  peril  of 
her  hfe.  She  is  doubtful  of  her  lord's  capri- 
cious temper.  Her  moves  are  wary.  He  promises 
**  even  to  the  half  of  the  kingdom."  She  merely 
begs  him  to  banquet  with  her,  and  bring  her 
enemy  Haman.  She  and  he  must  stand  face  to 
face,  when  she  finds  the  time  ripe  to  thrust  into 
the  king's  astonished  hand  the  scales  into  which 
Haman  unawares  has  cast  his  hfe  against  hers. 
But  something  checks  her  disclosure  that  day. 
She  puts  off  the  king's  curiosity  by  promising 
to  tell  him  to-morrow,  if  he  and  Haman  will  dine 
with  her  again.  Whether  the  delay  that  proved 
so  opportune  be  the  contrivance  of  fiction,  or  part 
of  the  romance  of  facts,  it  occasions  a  surprising 
prelude  to  the  impending  crisis. 

Chance  after  chance  thickens  the  plot.  That 
night  the  king  happened  to  be  sleepless,  and 
one  read  to  him  from  the  history  of  the  realm. 
It  happened,  again,  that  the  part  read  recorded 
Mordecai's  discovery  of  the  palace  plot,  and  also 
that  the  king  bethought  himself  to  ask  if  he  had 
been  rewarded.  It  happened,  too,  that  Haman 
had  been  advised  to  rid  himself  at  once  of  Mor- 
decai,  and  came  to  ask  for  the  death-warrant,  when, 
again,    it   happened    that    the   king    spoke   first: 


RUTH  AND  ESTHER.  yi 

"  What  shall  be  done  to  the  man  whom  the  king 
delighteth  to  honor?"  Naturally  thinking,  "That 
means  me,"  the  audacious  favorite  proposes  to  set 
the  man  on  the  king's  horse,  wearing  the  royal 
crown  and  robes,  and  to  conduct  him  through  the 
city  by  the  hand  of  a  chief  nobleman,  proclaiming 
his  merit.  Where  else  is  there  so  striking  a  picture 
of  that 

"Vaulting  ambition,  which  o'erleaps  itself, 
And  falls  on  the  other  "  ? 

''  Make  haste,  and  do  as  thou  hast  said  to  Mor- 
decai  the  Jew."  So  narrowly  does  Mordecai  escape 
all,  to  win  all !  With  such  presentiment  of  fate 
comes  Haman  to  the  banquet  again,  where  Esther, 
apprised,  no  doubt,  of  the  new  turn  of  affairs, 
now  confidently  awaits  her  enemy.  Short,  sharp, 
terrible,  the  ensuing  crisis  in  which  he  falls,  like  a 
Satan  from  heaven  to  the  pit, 

In  the  fourth  act  Esther  achieves  her  most  diffi- 
cult task,  reversing  the  royal  decree  for  her  people's 
destruction,  which  was  constitutionally  irreversible. 
Such  is  the  practical  inconvenience  which  besets 
any  theory  of  infallibility  in  king  or  pope.  Her 
tears  and  pleas  avail  to  nullify  the  decree  by  an 
edict  authorizing  resistance  to  its  execution.    Here 


72  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE, 

she  discovers  how  well  a  higher  power  had  wrought 
for  her  by  determining  Haman's  lot  to  a  day  re- 
mote enough  for  her  effective  intervention.  The 
moral  meets  us  throughout  the  story,  how  the 
wicked  must  beware  of,  while  the  good  may  hope 
in,  those  incalculable  elements  of  God's  world 
which  men  call  chance.  In  these  the  "  divinity 
that  shapes  our  ends"  appears,  however  unmen- 
tioned  his  name. 

A  moral  difficulty  emerges  for  us  in  the  fifth 
act,  and  its  account  of  Esther's  final  triumph.  It 
seems  a  sanguinary  demand  she  makes :  "  Let 
Haman's  ten  sons  be  hanged  upon  the  gallows." 
But  is  this  mere  cruelty,  or  a  precaution  against 
revenge?  For  thus  the  Jews'  act  in  killing  the 
men  received  an  intimidating  sanction  from  the 
royal  order  for  the  gibbeting  of  the  corpses.  At 
any  rate,  we  must  remember  that  it  is  but  two 
centuries,  as  Macaulay  reminds  us,  since  leaders  of 
Parliamentary  opposition  were  liable  to  pay  the 
forfeit  of  defeat  upon  the  scaffold,  and  Cromwell 
thought  it  a  military  necessity  to  put  an  Irish 
garrison  to  the  sword.  There  is  a  chord  in  the 
book  that  vibrates  to  the  spirit  of  revenge,  but 
need  not  therefore  be  deemed  to  have  been  strung 
by  it. 


RUTH  AND  ESTHER.  73 

The  open  questions  of  the  origin  of  the  Purim 
feast,  and  of  the  historical  probabiHties  of  the 
narrative,  do  not  affect  the  Hterary  or  the  moral 
value  of  the  book.  Its  right  to  a  place  in  the  canon 
was  early  contested.  Luther  disparaged  it  as  full 
of  "  heathen  naughtiness."  Bleek  declares  that 
**no  other  book  of  the  Old  Testament  is  so  far 
removed  from  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel."  Dr.  Glad- 
den regards  it  as  "  absolutely  barren  of  rehgious 
ideas  or  suggestions."  But  so  Christlike  a  man 
as  Dean  Stanley  thus  gives  his  judgment:  ''The 
story  of  Esther,  glorified  by  the  genius  of  Handel 
and  sanctified  by  the  piety  of  Racine,  is  not  only 
a  material  for  the  noblest  and  the  gentlest  of  medi- 
tations, but  a  token  that  in  the  daily  events  —  the 
unforeseen  chances  —  of  Hfe,  in  little  unremem- 
bered  acts,  in  the  fall  of  a  sparrow,  in  the  earth 
bringing  forth  fruit  of  herself,  God  is  surely  pres- 
ent. The  name  of  God  is  not  there,  but  the  work 
of  God  isr 


THE  BOOK  OF  JOB  AS  LITERATURE. 


VI. 

THE   BOOK   OF  JOB   AS   LITERATURE. 
By  JOHN    F.   GENUNG,  Ph.  D., 

Professor  of  Rhetoric  at  Amherst  College. 

\  X  7HEN  the  great  French  organist  Guilmant 
was  in  our  country  a  few  years  ago,  a  per- 
son coming  from  one  of  his  recitals  was  overheard 
to  remark:  "  Oh,  yes,  I  suppose  I  ought  to  call  it 
wonderful ;  but  there  was  n't  any  tune  to  it."  The 
remark  showed  that  the  man's  standard  of  music 
was  a  simple  popular  melody  Hke  "  Home,  Sweet 
Home "  or  ''  Onward,  Christian  Soldiers,"  which 
he  had  perhaps  expected  to  hear  played  with  the 
assured  skill  of  a  master,  or  embellished  with  un- 
heard-of effects  of  harmony  and  instrumentation. 
At  all  events,  what  he  had  heard  had  evidently 
not  found  him,  had  not  spoken  to  an  inner  need  of 
his  plebeian  taste. 

Let  us  not  be  too  ready  to  sneer  at  this  man. 
His  implicit  demand  for  a  tune  was  reasonable  and 
natural;    it  was,    in   fact,    the   universal   demand. 


yS  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

We  all  require  in  music  that  is  to  have  power 
over  us,  that  it  shall  say  something  to  our  hearts, 
shall  awaken  some  melody  that  already  pulsates 
within  us.  It  must  have  a  tune  in  order  to  have 
meaning.  We  require  the  analogue  of  this  in  any 
work  of  literature  that  is  to  be  vital  in  us ;  the 
poem  or  the  story  must  have  some  definite  melody 
that  calls  forth  a  responsive  throb  from  that  inner 
place  where  our  hopes,  our  ideals,  our  chastenings 
are,  else  all  its  splendor  of  word  and  imagery  is  so 
much  empty  display.  In  conceding  this,  however, 
we  have  by  no  means  condemned  the  organist  for 
his  failure  to  reach  his  vulgar  hearer ;  nor  do  we 
thereby  reproach  the  great  author  because  his 
audience,  though  fit,  is  few.  The  hearer  needs  to 
be  tuned  up,  not  the  musician  down.  There  is  a 
region  of  truest  melody,  of  loftier  utterance,  to 
which  he  has  never  ascended.  He  is  like  the  valet 
who  brings  to  the  view  of  heroism  only  his  narrow 
valet-soul ;  he  can  contain  only  according  to  his 
capacity;  all  beyond  is  meaningless.  If  he  were 
larger  in  life,  deeper  in  spirit,  wealthier  in  nature, 
out  of  that  wilderness  of  tone  that  he  now  hears  so 
unappreciatively  would  emerge  a  melody  greater 
than  he  has  ever  conceived ;  he  would  find  himself 
listening  with  responsive  heart,  as  many  another 


THE  BOOK  OF  JOB  AS  LITERATURE.  79 

hearer  has  Hstened,  to  a  strain  from  the  deep  music 
of  humanity. 

The  Book  of  Job  contains  some  of  the  profound- 
est  world-music  ever  chanted ;   but  the  melody,  the 
tune  of  it,  has  rarely  been  heard  in  its  real  great- 
ness and  compass.     And    the    reason  is,   I  think, 
because    men    have    generally    brought  to    it  too 
small  a  soul,  or  because  they  have  contemplated  it, 
not  from  our  universal  nature,  but   from  some  one 
narrow  side.     If  we  approach  it  with  a  dogmatic 
soul  which  has  an  ear  only  for  systems  of  doctrine 
or  evidences  of  inspiration ;  if  we  approach  it  with 
a  prosaic  soul  which  sticks  fast  in  questions  of  dead 
fact  or  of  the   authenticity   of  documents ;   if  we 
bring   to  it  merely  the   homiletic  soul  which  can 
recognize  nothing   but  texts   for  sermons,  we  get 
something  indeed,  for  the   book  is  rich  on  many 
sides,  but  the  great  undertone  of  its  central  melody 
is  not  for  us  any  more  than  if  it  were  a  thing  with- 
out life  giving  sound.     Such  approaches  as  these  are 
concerned  merely  with  the  poem's  out^vorks ;   they 
do   not  find  the  throb  of  its  heart.     Nor  can  we 
rightly  appreciate  it  until  we  bring  to   it  not  only 
all  that  is  in  us,  but  that  is  in  us   as   enlarged  and 
purified.     By  this  I  do  not  mean  that  we  must  be 
learned  in  order  to  read  it;  the  learning  we  need 


8o  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

is  just  that  experience  of  trial  and  spiritual  chasten- 
ing which  awaits  every  earnest-hearted  man.  Thus 
the  language  that  the  Book  of  Job  speaks  is  the 
language  of  the  universal  thinking  and  feeling 
humanity ;  or,  in  other  words,  the  language  of  the 
best  literature ;  such  language  as  is  pressed  out  of 
the  world's  Dantes  and  Shakespeares  and  Miltons. 
'*  Literature,"  says  Mr.  John  Morley,  "  consists  of 
all  the  books  —  and  they  are  not  so  many  —  where 
moral  truth  and  human  passion  are  touched  with  a 
certain  largeness,  sanity,  and  attraction  of  form." 
Apply  such  a  definition  as  this  to  the  Book  of  Job, 
and  you  will  find  that  the  book  still  retains  in  en- 
hanced significance  all  the  good  that  other  methods 
of  approach  have  yielded,  while  also  it  gains  be- 
yond expression  in  its  meaning  for  our  common 
human  nature.  It  becomes,  as  Carlyle  has  defined 
it,  an  "  all  men's  book ;  "  we  recognize  in  it  the 
pulsating  soul  of  the  wide  world  before  that  soul 
has  shut  itself  up  in  prejudice  of  belief  or  narrow- 
ness of  doctrine,  and  yet  after  it  has  been  so  "  salted 
by  fire  "  as  to  be  deeply  aware  of  the  mystery  of 
existence.  Thus  the  straightforward  literary  study 
of  the  book  proves  to  be  not  only  the  simplest,  but 
the  broadest,  freest,  most  natural  and  comprehen- 
sive.    By  it  the  great  poem  is  brought   in   from 


THE  BOOK  OF  JOB  AS  LITERATURE.  8 1 

the  remote  regions  where  ecclesiasticism  and  erudi- 
tion have  forced  it  to  moulder,  to  the  wide  plains, 
or  rather  table-lands,  of  all  men's  experience,  to 
dwell  with  them  every  day,  a  vital  and  upholding 
influence.  By  it  we  interpret  the  book  most  nearly 
in  the  spirit  of  the  book  itself;  which  in  truth  is 
the  only  adequate  standard  of  interpretation. 

Such  a  literary  approach  invests  every  part  and 
procedure  of  the  poem,  matter  and  form  alike,  with 
a  new  and  transfiguring  significance. 

In  its  form  —  the  splendor  of  its  passion  and 
imagery,  the  purity  of  its  poetic  diction,  the  fine 
articulation  of  its  structure,  the  unity  and  con- 
tinuity of  its  embodied  idea  —  it  yields  in  no  re- 
spect to  the  most  disciplined  skill  of  the  modern 
man  of  letters.  Whatever  age  produced  it  was 
certainly  an  age  in  which  the  literary  art  had  at- 
tained not  only  a  high  but  a  well-rounded  develop- 
ment. If  we  do  not  linger  further  on  its  artistic 
form  here,  however,  it  is  because  it  seems  better  to 
devote  our  space  to  considering  the  great  effects 
which,  by  virtue  of  its  art,  real  though  hidden,  it 
produces  on  those  for  whom  it  was  intended  ;  those 
readers  to  whom  literature  is  not  so  much  a  form 
as  a  power.  Even  the  study  of  literary  forms  soon 
pushes  out  into  a  region  scholastic  and  technical, 


82  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

leaving  the  all-men's  plane.  The  reader  addressed 
by  universal  literature  cares  not  so  much  that  a 
sonnet  contains  fourteen  lines  as  that  it  embodies 
a  fruitful  thought;  not  so  much  that  a  great  work 
is  in  poetry  as  that  it  is  inspiring  and  uplifting. 
He  can,  however,  walk  with  its  protagonist;  he 
can  respond  to  the  march  of  its  action ;  he  can 
share  in  its  attitude  toward  life  and  nature  and  God 
and  the  unseen.  Let  us  see  how  these  great  ht- 
erary  potencies  appear  in  the  Book  of  Job. 

Take  the  great  personage  in  which  all  the  storm 
of  word  and  action  centres,  the  patriarch  himself 
*'  There  are  great  personalities,"  says  the  writer 
already  quoted,  "who  march  through  history  with 
voices  hke  a  clarion  trumpet  and  something  like 
the  glitter  of  swords  in  their  hands.  .  .  .  Contact 
with  them  warms  and  kindles  the  mind."  The 
remark  applies  not  only  to  the  world  of  actual 
fact  but  to  that  truer  history  which  we  call  litera- 
ture. Prometheus  and  CEdipus,  Lear  and  Othello, 
are  real  and  vital  existences  to  us,  teaching  us  by 
their  great  experiences  no  less  truly  than  if  we 
could  visit  their  birthplaces  and  record  their  lives. 
So  is  Job,  the  Hebrew  Prometheus ;  and  the  great- 
ness of  his  patience,  the  sublimity  of  his  allegiance 
to  the  godlike,  are  affected  no  whit  by  the  question 


THE  BOOK  OF  JOB  AS  LITERATURE.  83 

whether  we  can  find  that  city  of  the  Hauran  where 
he  sat  with  the  elders  in  the  gate  or  not.  It  is  as 
a  great  epical  hero  that  he  lives  for  us  and  for  his- 
tory. **Ye  have  heard  of  the  patience  of  Job,  and 
have  seen  the  end  of  the  Lord,"  was  Saint  James's 
lesson  from  the  book ;  it  may  stand  as  the  great 
object-lesson  for  the  ages :  as  Othello  stands  for  a 
noble  heart  tortured  by  jealousy;  as  Macbeth,  in  a 
manner  wholly  apart  from  his  historical  existence, 
stands  in  Shakespeare's  pages  for  an  ambitious 
soul  dallying  with  and  yielding  to  temptation.  In 
such  a  gallery  of  great  lives  and  passions  the 
patriarch  of  Uz  is  to  be  counted  among  the  most 
eminent.  In  calHng  him  an  epical  hero  I  am  not 
touching  the  comparatively  idle  question  whether  the 
poem  is  epic  or  dramatic.  That  question  belongs 
to  the  outworks  of  the  study.  But  what  is  of 
central  importance  is  that  here  we  have  a  man  like 
ourselves,  giving  utterance  to  our  most  agonized 
thoughts,  fearlessly  approaching  the  mystery  that 
encompasses  us  all,  and  conquering  therefrom  a 
character,  a  strength  of  honest  manhood,  that  once 
gained  may  always  stand  the  needy  world  in  good 
stead.  Such  a  conception  as  this  is  epic,  what- 
ever the  outward  form  of  the  poem ;  the  hero, 
with  his  words  and  acts,  builds  a  veritable  epos  for 


84  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

the  centuries  to  enshrine  among  their  great  spiritual 
possessions. 

Take  again  the  action  of  the  poem,  the  melody, 
so  to  speak,  that  most  deeply  determines  its  signifi- 
cance. An  unduly  narrow  view  that  is  which  re- 
gards it  as  a  religious  debate  on  the  question  why 
God  allows  the  righteous  to  suffer,  —  a  view  that 
raises  the  action  no  higher  than  the  dogmatic 
standard  of  Eliphaz  and  Bildad  and  Zophar.  But 
there  is  a  great  conflict  of  character  going  on,  an 
action  uttered  between  the  lines  which  is  sublimer 
than  they  have  souls  to  see.  It  is  the  battle  be- 
tween the  seeking  for  self  and  the  seeking  for  the 
divine,  between  service  for  wages  and  service  for 
love.  Job  on  his  ash-heap,  in  darkness  and  misery, 
groaning  with  disease,  and  deserted  as  an  accursed 
being  by  friends,  remains  absolutely  honest  with 
himself  and  loyal  to  his  ideal  of  the  godlike,  even 
against  God  Himself  as  it  seems,  until  his  faith  battles 
its  way  to  victory  in  the  survival  of  good  and  right 
beyond  the  tomb.  Thus  in  pain  and  conflict  is 
discovered  the  great  Newtonian  law  of  the  spiritual 
life,  that  the  true  service  of  God  is  not  work  for 
reward ;  it  is  a  heart-loyalty,  a  hunger  after  God's 
presence,  which  survives  loss  and  chastisement; 
which  in  spite  of  contradictory  seeming  cleaves  to 


THE  BOOK  OF  JOB  AS  LITERATURE.  85 

what  is  godlike  as  the  needle  seeks  the  pole ;  and 
which  reaches  up  out  of  the  darkness  and  hardness 
of  this  life  to  the  light  and  love  beyond.^  In  the 
presence  of  such  an  action,  the  mere  debate  on  the 
question  why  the  righteous  suffer  is  so  small  a  part 
that  it  sinks  to  insignificance ;  it  is  only  the  wordy 
vehicle  whereby  the  littleness  of  men,  their  false 
dignity,  their  hidebound  traditions,  their  dogmatic 
intolerance,  their  vanity  of  knowledge,  beat  against 
the  great  rock-soul  of  the  patriarch  as  he  wages 
his  battle  for  disinterested  love.  This  central 
theme  is  for  all  men ;  in  it  is  vitally  involved  the 
spiritual  evolution  of  manhood.  An  epic  for  the 
world  it  is,  therefore,  not  for  theologian  or  scholar 
or  Jew  or  Christian  alone ;  a  song  for  humanity, 
with  the  largeness,  the  sanity,  the  sublime  beauty 
of  universal  literature. 

An  eye  that  so  clearly  discerns  spiritual  things 
as  does  that  of  the  author  of  this  Book  of  Job  may 
be  expected  to  look  out  steadily  and  truly  into  the 
world  of  nature.  Accordingly  we  find  here  some 
of  the  greatest  nature-poetry  ever  written,  —  poetry 
that  reveals  a  keen  eye  for  the  beautiful,  and  es- 

1  The  writer  begs  to  refer  to  a  little  book  of  his,  "  The  Epic 
of  the  Inner  Life  "  (Boston,  i89i),from  which  (page  20)  the  above 
sentence  is  quoted. 


86  THE  BIBLE  AS  LITERATURE. 

pecially  for  the  sublime  in  the  world,  for  the 
wonders  of  the  rocks  and  the  wildness  of  the 
wastes,  for  cloud  and  snow  and  hail,  for  the  power 
and  wisdom  displayed  in  animal  life,  for  the  grand- 
eur of  the  seas  and  the  heavens.  Ancient  and 
solemn  the  diction,  but  underneath  it  is  a  spirit  of 
accurate  observation,  of  unconventional  fidelity  to 
fact,  which  we  too  lightly  think  was  first  brought 
to  expression  by  Wordsworth  and  Tennyson.  In 
it  all,  too,  is  an  insight  which  pierces  beyond  the 
phenomenal  to  the  divine  soul  of  all  things ;  so 
that  it  is  like  nature  as  viewed  by  a  celestial  visitant, 
who  sees  not  the  mere  outside,  but  those  inner 
qualities  that  are  struggling  to  make  themselves 
visible  through  our  muddy  vesture  of  decay.  It  is 
the  true  nature-poetry,  because  it  sees  the  world  of 
nature  folded  in  the  arms  of  its  Creator  and  every- 
where obedient  to  His  will. 

In  the  same  way  the  spirit  of  poetry,  of  the 
universal  human  heart,  pulsates  in  all  its  approach 
to  the  greater  mysteries  of  life  and  death.  In  the 
theme  that  forms  the  profound  undertone  of  the 
world's  most  solemn  literature  —  the  theme  of  that 
Power  which  holds  us  in  a  grasp  unevadable,  which 
casts  down  and  builds  up,  slays  and  makes  alive  as 
it  will,  —  the  heart  of  our  author  beats  in  unison 


THE  BOOK  OF  JOB  AS  LITERATURE.  8/ 

with  the  heart  of  the  world,  giving  no  oracular 
utterance  as  from  the  mountain  of  absolute  revela- 
tion, but  sending  forth  the  cry  of  those  who  see 
through  a  glass,  darkly,  blinking  nothing  of  the 
terror  and  the  dread,  yet  in  the  face  of  it  all 
assuming  that  attitude  which  best  befits  us  as  we 
enter  the  cloud,  and  which,  for  life  and  character, 
is  the  true  solution  of  the  world's  enigma.  It  is 
much  that  from  the  depth  of  inexplicable  mystery 
one  voice  has  learned  to  say,  "  I  know  that  my 
Redeemer  liveth."  No  greater  utterance  has  ever 
illumined  the  pages  of  literature. 

Such  is  a  hint  at  some  of  the  things  which  the  ( 
Book  of  Job  reveals  when   studied  as  a   monument 
of  the  world's  literature.     Its  melody  is  solemn  and    \ 
sublime,  requiring  the  chastened  ear  to  hear ;   but,     ! 
rightly  heard,  it  strikes  the  deepest  chords  of  the    i 
human  and  the  divine. 


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